Pcasso's Page

THE TIME HAS COME TO BLOG AGAIN

2010-07-16T14:33:00.019-05:00

We have spent the past several weeks in The Land of Enchantment, enjoying the high desert, mountains and crisp, cool air!

Our first stop was in Raton, NM, where we lived when we were first married. This flag is at the top of Goat Hill and the sign is lighted at night so travelers might find their way there.

Raton Pass which is located just north of the town center had been used by Spanish explorers and Indians for centuries to cut through the rugged Rocky Mountains, but the trail was too rough for wagons on the Santa Fe Trail.
Raton was founded at the site of Willow Springs, a stop on the Santa Fe Trail. The original 320 acres for the Raton townsite were purchased from the Maxwell Land Grant in 1880. In 1879, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway bought a local toll road and established a busy rail line. Raton quickly developed as a railroad, mining and ranching center for the northeast part of the New Mexico territory, as well as the county seat and principal trading center of the area. This is where Frank and I lived when he got out of dental school and here you see out first apartment.

It was very cold in the winter, so in order to save money, we would turn the heat off at 6:00 p.m. right after dinner, go to bed and snuggle under an electric blanket to keep warm. Those are the kind of things that make good memories!
We arrived just after lunch at our favorite Raton "hangout", Bearadise, and started on our vacation. We always leave home no later than 3 a.m. in order to avoid the heavy traffic in the Metroplex (Frank's idea ... NOT mine!)

We spent a great deal of our time in Raton doing absolutely nothing but sitting on the couch, watching movies on the TV and relaxing. A good way to start a vacation.

Our good friends who own this guest house, Beverly and Larry, were in town only one day and then they left for Las Cruces as their daughter, Lisa, was graduating from medical school.
Bev and I have been friends for nearly 1/2 century and it's always good to get together with her.

Her husband, Larry, is not only Frank's fishing buddy, but also runs in very lofty circles. He's a scientist and spends a lot of time in D.C. as well as Europe and Russia. It's good to have friends who have friends in high places :-)

That first evening we went to Trinidad, Colorado which is just over the pass to Cougar Canyon Resort for dinner.

We had crab legs and made a complete mess of ourselves and the table, but they were delicious. There's nothing better than too much butter!

We reminisced about all the times we had driven over Raton Pass to go to different restaurants and clubs when we were young. We had so much fun back then and still do!
That night after we had gone to bed, we heard a noise and discovered that there was a bear outside (they didn't name our place Bearadise for nothing!) The bears love to visit the "big house" at the top of the hill where Bev and Larry live, but now they have decided to come and visit us.
A couple of years ago when we were there I photographed one of the uninvited "visitors". When Frank found out that I had done this he was furious. He said, "And just exactly what would you have done if the bear decided to run after you?", and I told him that I had a plan. I was going to go into the garage with my trusty Nikon and pull down the door. I had no idea that bears could be so fast. He said that the bear would have probably been inside the garage waiting for me and we would have been closed in there together! So much for my plan. At any rate, here are a couple of the shots that I took. I guess that it was worth the risk.

You can see where Frank had been cooking the night before! I've never been very comfortable in their wonderful yard since that experience. I'm always waiting for that uninvited guest!

Several days later, a bear tried to get into the big house. Here are some photos that they took right after we had left for Santa Fe. Their dog, McKenzie, is having a fit and I would have been having one as well if I'd been there. Talk about the Wild West!

Stay tuned ... more adventures and much more excitement to come!
XOXO, Pcasso

FUN ON THE FOURTH IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT

2009-07-12T09:11:00.045-05:00

This blog will be a little different as I’m writing it in “journalistic” style.

Instead of doing Day 1, Day 2, etc. as I did when we went to China, I’m putting it all in one long entry. Please bear with me. Hopefully the food shots will hold your interest :-)

June 26-27

We spent our first night of vacation in Tucumcari with Teresa and Gary, our niece and nephew. Teresa is moving to Albuquerque since she’ll be teaching in Los Lunas.

Their school starts on Monday. We visited that evening with all the family and left for Santa Fe the next morning. Once we got settled into our condo we went immediately to Tia Sophia's for lunch (it was time for an enchilada fix)

After lunch we went to the Railyard which was a zoo since it was Gay Pride Day and there was a parade which ended there. There were hundreds of people everywhere and it was much too crowded to get out and look around. Many of them were in costume and they were a sight to behold! The Farmer’s Market was open as it is every Saturday and Tuesday. Since there was no place to park we headed back to the condo.

We finished unpacking and then Papa went to store. When we were settled in we had a little drink and enjoyed the wonderful cool weather. That evening we went to Kohnami Japanese Restaurant for Tempura. Home by 9:00 and in bed by 10:00.

Sunday

We got up, had breakfast at the condo and then took a late morning nap. It was drizzling rain .. 64 degrees, the perfect weather to be lazy. We had lunch at PC’s since our favorite places aren’t open on Sunday. Our dear friend, Larry Stolarczyk is coming for a short visit this afternoon. He and Frank are big time fly fishing buddies.

He arrived around 3. We had a nice visit at the condo and then we went to Java Joe’s for a coffee. He left around five, we dressed and went to Vanessi’s to meet the Waldies.

There was a gentleman there named Clayton West who Doug invited to sing and he had a marvelous voice. He sang "Me and Mrs. Jones" and he was so good that it gave me goose pimples to listen to him! We could have listened to him all night. However, we were home by 10:00. As we are part of the "Golden Generation" we need our beauty sleep! As an addition, we have just found out that he sings at El Meson on Thursday nights. If you're going to be in Santa Fe, I'd encourage you to go and hear him. You won't regret it!

Monday

Watched Cash Cab since it's a favorite show of mine and then had breakfast and cleaned up. Our friends, the Cooks called. They will be coming to SF the 8th for a day or two. We had lunch at La Choza and as always, it was delicious!

We came home and rested the rest of the day. Played cards in afternoon out on the portal and had Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken here for dinner. It was our first time to try Bertoli and it was great!

Tuesday

Frank went to the Farmer’s Market after breakfast. Bought red chili as we are starting to run a little short of it at home and we needed to replenish our supply. He heard an interview about green chili that we will order from this farm in September when it is ready. We then went to Tomasita’s for lunch. It was not very good. You can never tell about enchiladas here in Santa Fe. It mainly depends on the chili and when it was picked so the flavors tend to vary in restaurants. We went to a movie in the late afternoon, Pelham 123. We were on the edge of our seats most of the time and worn out when it was over. It was a very good film.

Wednesday

Today was a slow day We went to the Shed for lunch with our long time Santa Fe friend, Patty, and had a nice visit.

Had dinner at home and watched So You Think You Can Dance.
Thursday

We had Almond Croissants from the Sage Bakery for breakfast that Frank went to get for us,

and shortly after we had lunch at Bagel Mania

and then took the Rail Runner to Albuquerque and back.

It was a nice trip but lots of very odd looking people on the train. I was glad when the trip ended. Frank got help with the schedule so we would be sure and make the right connection.

We arrived home by 8, just in time to watch So You Think You Can Dance. Jeopardy is on here at 10:00 in the evening as well as in the afternoon, so we have been watching that before we go to bed each night. These are both favorite shows of ours.

Friday

We went to look at condos at El Corozon de Santa Fe and then met the Ellis' for lunch at La Choza.

We’ve decided that they have the best enchiladas in town on this trip as far as we're concerned.

After lunch we went to see “Whatever Works” which was directed by Woody Allen and starred Larry David.

If you're a Woody Allen fan like we are, you'll love it.
There’s a new movie coming soon called “The September Issue” which is documentary with Anna Wintour, the Editor of Vogue. She’s our friend Patty’s niece. I found this information about her and the movie and thought I’d share it. Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue for 20 years, is the most powerful and polarizing figure in fashion.

Larger than life and more complex than fiction, Wintour embodies a fascinating contradiction of passion and perfectionism as she reigns over a dizzying array of designers, models, photographers, and editors. The Director of this movie delivers a rare insider account of the nine months leading up to the printing of the highly anticipated September issue of the magazine, which promises to be the biggest one ever. He takes us behind the scenes at fashion week, to Europe and back, on shoots and reshoots, and into closed-door staff meetings, bearing witness to an arduous and sometimes emotionally demanding process. At the eye of this annual fashion hurricane is the two-decade relationship between Wintour and Grace Coddington, incomparable creative director and genius stylist. They are perfectly matched for this age-old conflict between creator and curator. Through them, we see close up the delicate creative chemistry it takes to remain at the top of the ever-changing fashion field. Cutler cleverly deconstructs the creative process as it plays out in the hollowed halls of Vogue, lined with racks of couture. In The September Issue, his access and insight are impressive and make us aware that he is offering us a privileged glimpse into a world many dream about but few see. The movie was an award winner at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year.
I can’t wait for it to be released. It will be especially interesting for me since we know Patty so well.
We had dinner after the movie at the Dragon Room which is a part of the Pink Adobe.… green chili stew with a very good dry Riesling. The stew was different … not as good as mine in my opinion, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Home by 9:30 and off to bed. We skipped Jeopardy tonight.

Saturday

We were up early and had breakfast here at the condo. Since we were going to brunch at 10:00 we decided to skip Pancakes on the Plaza and just enjoy the people and the music.

The entertainment was good and at 11:00 we’ll be going to the Williamson’s for Bloody Mary’s and a great brunch at their condo at Ft. Marcy. This is our "Hostess with the Mostess, Cleo"

and here we are with her husband, Bob.

That evening we headed off to Albuquerque for a visit with Bonnie, Teresa’s mother, Gary, Teresa and Gary’s sister, Sandy. She made a shrimp boil for dinner and it was great.

We spent the night with family to avoid driving back home after dark on the 4th. It is also a Saturday night and not a good time to be on the highway. When we first arrived we visited Teresa’s new apartment and then were on our way to Bonnie’s. Gary, T and Edd joined us for dinner. Bonnie also made hush puppies and they were delicious.

We visited for a while after dinner and then were off to bed at a decent hour. Her home is great for dining al fresco since the weather is so nice in the summer in New Mexico.

Sunday

We had a big and wonderful breakfast and then bid adieu to the family and went to see Ray and Eleanor, our long time friends from Raton who now live in Albuquerque.

We had a nice visit over Bloody Mary’s and then headed back to Santa Fe in time for a late lunch. We had lunch at Maria’s and then came back to the condo to watch the golf tournament. Tiger pulled it off one more time. He’s a great golfer and exciting to watch. Forgot to mention that we watched a lot of the matches at Wimbledon and saw the Williams sister play against each other for the title.
We brought chicken in for dinner and took it easy the rest of the day. I’m not feeling well so this has been a trip with a lot of rest included. The altitude is really playing havoc with my breathing and I plan to go see about this when we return. Looks as though we might have to cut the trip short this year. I really hate that for poor Papa. He enjoys New Mexico so much so it really bothers me when we have to leave because of me.

Monday

We went downtown and bought a wedding gift for David Guion at Nambe plus some lovely crystal votive candle holders for us. From there we went to the Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino to look around and we had lunch.

It was probably one of the worst meals I’ve ever had. I ordered a chicken-fried steak. Big mistake! I asked her if it had cream gravy and she said that it came with brown gravy but she could get me cream gravy. Well … when it arrived it was cream of mushroom soup that they were trying to pass off as gravy. Thank goodness I didn’t pour it all over my steak before I tasted it!
I know that it might sound as though I think I’m a food critic, but all I ever seem to do is eat, so that certainly should qualify me to some degree. We probably should stick to enchiladas.

July is the beginning of the monsoons in New Mexico and every afternoon the storms move in, there is a brief shower and it cools everything off.

It makes for a wonderful little break from the heat and then there are glorious rainbows and unbelievable sunsets!
We met with our friends Chuck and Linda for dinner at Max’s, which is a new restaurant to us.

Since they are locals, then know all the wonderful little places where tourist don’t usually go and don't even know about.

The meal was absolutely delicious .... one of the best that we've ever had in Santa Fe including Geronimos! It’s a small place with only about 8 tables and two people run it …. Max and her chef, Brian Rood.

I had Gulf Shrimp and Grits with prosciutto, haricot verts, mirepoix, fresh thyme and lemon butter sauce. Divine!!!

It was one of the best meals that I’ve had in a long time. Frank had grilled lamb chop and leg with an Italian summer vegetable salad, pesto and a port reduction and he said that it was delicious as well. I wish I had taken a photograph of the beautiful presentation. Hopefully we’ll go back again before the trip is over and I can take a shot.
Max's, which has been open in the rail yard district since 2007, has brought a new energy and excitement to the Santa Fe restaurant scene. Specializing in locally farmed, sustainable meats and produce, Max's strives to bring the farmers market to your table. It's casual but elegant, and it is perfect for a romantic night out. With a selection of fine wines to accompany your meal, a night at Max's is sure to be a night you will remember.

Tuesday

This has been a very lazy day for me. I’m having a very difficult time breathing, so I have basically done nothing and Frank has gone out twice for food for me. We have decided to come home early due to my health problems I’m very sorry to say.

Wednesday

We got up early in order to get cleaned up and to try to do a few last minute things before we leave for home tomorrow. Our dear friends, the Cooks, will be arriving in the early afternoon and we plan on having dinner with them and the Waldies tonight at Max’s.

The food was so wonderful on our last visit that we decided to go there one more time before we leave. I remembered to bring my camera this time so here are a few more food shots. It was wonderful as you can see and a good time was had by all.

We started with this olive appetizer which also included roasted garlic, garlic coated crostini and an assorment of cheeses with a Balsamic Vinegar accompaniment. It was to die for!

Here are a couple of the entrees that were ordered,

and the desserts were to die for!

The Cooks had car trouble so they were a little late getting to town. Their brand new car broke down at Cline’s Corner and they came into town in grand style, riding in a tow truck! After they got settled at the Inn on the Alameda, they came to our condo for a drink and then we were off to Max’s again. We had a wonderful visit and were home by 10:30.

Thursday

We loaded the car and were off to breakfast by 9:00. When we got to Baglemania, a favorite breakfast spot for us, I happened to notice that Frank wasn’t wearing any jewelry. He had left it all in the condo! As soon as he ordered, he rushed back and it was right where he had put it the night before, thank goodness!
After a delicious final meal in Santa Fe of Eggs Benedict, we headed toward Amarillo. When we got close to Tucumcari we decided to give Gary a call. He is the Superintendent of Schools in San Jon and he was on his way to have lunch at home, so we made arrangements to meet him at Blake’s. We arrived there a few minutes before he did and secured a big booth. We had a great visit with him. He’s such a wonderful young man and we feel so blessed to be able to spend time with him.

Since Frank is now the Patriarch of what was a large family at one time, we try to get together with the younger generation as often as possible. Family is so important and we hope that when we are gone all of the next generation will continue to stay in close touch with one another.
We arrived in Amarillo around 5:00 (there’s a time change between NM and Texas), rested for a while and went out for a quick bite. We ate at The Golden Corral … BIG mistake! I have never seen as many weird looking people gathered together in one place for a cheap meal in my life. Maybe there was a full moon out! The food was so-so and I was glad to get it over and get the heck out of Dodge! We were back at the motel by 8:00, watched So You Think You Can Dance (we're addicted) and were asleep by 10.

Friday

We left the motel by 7:00 a.m. and were on our way home. Passed by Cadillac Ranch and I felt compelled to take a photograph.

We’ve been by there a hundred times so I felt that the time had come to record this place.
Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in

Amarillo, Texas. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line from 1949 to 1963. They are half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Cadillac Ranch is visible from the highway, and though it is located on private land, visiting it (by driving along a frontage road and entering the pasture by walking through an unlocked gate) is encouraged. In addition, writing graffiti on or otherwise spray-painting the vehicles is also encouraged.
We had an uneventful trip home if you discount a dreadful traffic jam on the freeway just urside of Fort Worth, We got off of it at Beach Street and took another route. Arrived at the house around 1:00, unpacked, and went for a bite to eat. When I got my computer hooked up I had an Email from the kids with this photograph to show that they had arrived safely and their vacation had officially begun.

They are in Disneyworld and I’m sure will be have a wonderful time for the next 8 days.
As much as we hated to leave our beloved Santa Fe, it’s good to be back home where I can get the necessary medical attention that I need. I have an appointment Monday with Dr. Sobti and then he will refer me out to eith a Pulmonary physician, my cardiologist or both. Stay tuned for the Pcasso medical report.

XOXO, Me

BOARDING, BLUES, BIRTHDAYS, BUSH AND BISHOPS

2009-06-23T14:04:00.019-05:00

The Myrtles are in bloom and summer is officially here!

We used to have several of these trees in the back yard, but they didn't get enough sunlight so we took them out. The ones in the front yard, however, are a different story. They are prettier than they have ever been!

Let me remind you again that if you're having trouble reading this due to the verbage "striping", if you double left click your mouse on the right hand side of the text, it will clear up. I have no idea why it does this and I apologize for the inconvenience.
Now that summer is officially here, the boys are really busy. Ian is in "Skate Camp" as they call it, and he is getting very proficient on his skate board. I'm not terribly fond of these things since our eldest son broke his leg in several places on one (it was a neighbor's since I wouldn't let him have one). You can't ever get ahead of kids, so don't even try!

Over the Memorial Day weekend my friend and prayer partner, Diane, had a big surprise. Her stepson was riding his bike near Crawford, Texas and had the good fortune to run into former President Bush. He joined him and his wife and after the ride, invited the two of them to lunch! They were really impressed with both his hospitality and his agility on a bicycle. He's in great shape and glad to be back in Texas!

Last Thursday night Franklin and his band, The Burgandys, played at the Lakewood Bar and Grill in Dallas. If he hadn't given me these photographs I don't know if I would have recognized him!

They play Rock and Roll and I love their style of music, but they never start to play before 10:00 and we've been in bed an hour by then!

We keep telling him that if they would play around 7:30 in the evening, we would be able to make it. We're too old now to be out that late. We USED to go to all of his gigs as well as Jim's and Ian's. At least Ian starts early since he's so young!
The following Saturday was Franklin's 46th birthday. This is a photograph I took of him when he was in his early 20's. He was such a handsome young man. He still is but the hair was wonderful back then ;-) I'm still having trouble with his "new" look!

That night he and Beth entertained some friends with a dinner party at their home.

They had attended a benefit several weeks before, had bid on a dinner which included a chef, and they won the bid. That evening the chef and her assistant came over to their house and prepared and served the meal to the six of them.

They had wonderful hor doeurves to begin, a salad, lamb and Creme Brulee for dessert.

They celebrated Franklin's birthday with champagne (he tended bar in his Charlie Sheen shirt)

And then they drank a toast to the Birthday Boy. Here is Beth with her long time friend, Jennifer. She and her husband Eric were in Franklin and Beth's wedding.

And of course, here is the happy couple!

There were only six of them but they had a great time.

Here are the Brothers (they're not brothers, that's their name). They go with them to Diffa in Dallas each year. It's another benefit that they always look forward to.

They were all anxiously awaiting the meal. Once it was over, Diana flambed the Creme Brulee and the kids said there was not a morsel left!

Speaking of kids, everyone had a sitter that night so it was adult time. What a treat!

The next day, Sunday, was Father's Day. Franklin was born on Father's Day, so we always celebrate the two events together. I decided that I would do something at the house since Franklin usually cooks for the father's and since he is a father as well I thought he needed some special attention! Here he is with his boys.

And here is Big Daddy! He looks very content.

Since it was Paco's birthday, he got to open his presents first.

Just what he always wanted ... a Ranger's baseball cap! There was a monetary gift inside that made the little boys jealous and made their Daddy smile.

Beth and Connor watched as Papa opened his gifts.

Harry was bored with the whole event since he wasn't getting any steak, presents or attention!

After gift time, Beth went outside with her Dad to help Papa cook.

The steaks were cooked to perfection and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal. After all, eating is our favorite pastime as well as a great hobby!

Once the steaks were ready, we all went inside and enjoyed the Father's Day/Birthday feast. A good time was had by all.

Monday (yesterday) was the beginning of the big meeting of the ACNA which is the Anglican Church in North America. For those of you who have been following my blog, this is a historical event as that we are forming a new Province in the Anglican Communion in the United States.

This meeting is being held at our Cathedral, St. Vncent's, in Bedford, Tx. There are nearly 1000 in attendance and this conference will last through Thursday. I won't be seeing much of Papa since he is a delegate representing the Diocese of Fort Worth and will be attending meetings day and night. I love to see the clergy process into the sanctuary at the beginning of the service.

Each session begins with prayer and the Holy Eucharist. I love to see the clergy in their beautiful vestments and hear their wonderful voices singing all the old, traditional hymns.

It's not often that you have this many Bishops gathered together receiving the body and blood of our Lord at the same time.

They took an official photograph of all the Bishops in attendance at this meeteing. They represent all the corners of the earth that are part of the Anglican Communion.

After the Eucharist, the meeting began and there were many people in attendance as well as visitors.

Here are several members of our delegation.

If you remember, we hosted Arch Bishop Gregory Venebles last year. He is the AB of the Southern Cone which is in South America. I love this photograph of him. He is a wonderful and holy man and we are blessed to have him as our leader as we transition from TEC to the new Anglican Province.

Bishop Terrence Kelshaw, the former Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande is also in attendance. Here he is with his wife Hazel and another Bishop. He's in poor health now, but I remember the days when he was in his prime and we ran all over the streets of Jerusalem with him. We made that pilgrimage 16 years ago and our lives haven't been the same since. He's a dear man and we feel so blessed to have him and Hazel for our friends.

The keynote speaker today was Rick Warren. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forrrest, California, currently the eighth-largest church in the United States.

He also spoke at the Inauguration this year. The next few days will be exciting ones in the life of our church and I know Frank feels privileged to be there.

While he is watching history in the making, I'm trying to get things together so we can leave for Santa Fe on Friday. I almost have my bags packed and we will soon be hitting the road.

It's time for us to head for the Land of Enchantment once again, enjoy the cool, high desert air and get out of the Texas heat. I'll check back in from time to time and please do the same.

Have a delightful and cool summer!

XOXO, Pcasso

SPRINGTIME, STORMS, FOOD FESTS AND SURPRISES

2009-06-13T10:53:00.023-05:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything here. Time seems to really fly by. We've been having our usual Texas weather and I really don't like it!

When you live in Texas, it's either feast or famine when it comes to the weather. There's an old saying here that if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change!After returning from New Mexico where we attended our friend's grandchild's funeral, we've gotten back on that proverbial merry-go-round once again. I'm not complaining. What can be better than friends, fellowship and food!

We got together once again with our friends from Dental School for a nice dinner at Piccolo Mondo.

There's never a dull moment when there three are together. Lou and I just sit and listen to "the boys" exchange stories. They always seem to tell the same old stories and never tire of them. At least we all still have our memories to some extent!

On Thursday we went to Key Elementary School and attended Connor's award program. He won many awards and we are so proud of him. The boys seem to grow up so quickly. Seems like yesterday that he started school and now he's ready for the 4th grade WITH HONORS!

He waited very patiently with his friends for the program to begin. Then the award giving started and he was on the stage for almost every category.

He's a very special young man and we're very blessed to have him for a grandson.

Frank got an award that week as well. He was honored at a luncheon at the hospital for the volunteers. Here he is with his group (he's the cute, young one on the left!) I love them in their matching uniforms ;-)

Then on Friday night of that week we went to a dinner party at the Iker's. The weather was perfect and they had a marquee set up in the back yard so we could enjoy the food and friendship in a very relaxed environment. It was lovely.

This gathering was for the delegates and their spouses of the new Province and it was a beautiful evening.

The next night which was Saturday, we went to the Ashton's for dinner. Our good friends, the Mitchell's were there as well.

Both K and William are the perfect hosts. We began the evening on the portal with cocktails and hors d'oeurves.

After cocktail hour, we went inside for a lovely meal. William loves to cook and he made the most delicious lasagna that I think I have ever tasted. Needless to say, we didn't leave a single bite!

Sunday was the Feast of the Pentecost so we had our annual outdoor church service and gathering at Legacy Park. The service was lovely and very well attended and afterward we had a picnic which the younger ones prepared for us.

On Monday we went back to the school for Ian's program. He did as well as his brother and spent a lot of time on the stage. He even got a special medal for being at the top of his class. Of course as proud grandparents we had to pose with him, but we also wanted to show you this photograph of his Mom and his teachers.

He will be in the 6th grade next year and then on to Junior High. Where on earth has the time gone???

The next night we went to Fort Worth for dinner with our friends, the Pattons, and Canon and Mrs. Heidt. Jo Ann has always been the "Hostess with the Mostess " and cooks like a dream. She makes it seem so effortless.

To top the meal off, she served us this beautiful dessert and it tasted as good as it looks!

Kiwis, blackberries and whipped cream top this lemon tart. Yummy!

I went to lunch on Thursday with an artist friend of mine. She's such a talented young woman and I always enjoy her company. This is a shot that I took of her at work at the Gallery some time ago. She was so busy painting that she wasn't even aware that I had taken her photograph.

We went out again with the Ikers on Tuesday night to Bonnell's. (Do you get the feeling that all we do is eat???) At our age, that's about all we can still do and do well, so why not!) The food is always delicious and we wanted to get together with them one more time before we leave for Santa Fe. I went to school with the owner's sister. In fact, we were sorority sisters. That was a long time ago as well!

Frank went to the baseball game on Wednesday night. He had barely left when a storm came up from out of the blue and it was awful. The trees in our yard were bending over as the winds got up to nearly 70 mph gusts and it looked like it was raining horizontally. We got over 4 inches of rain in a couple of hours. I thought the water in the pool was going to come up over the top. We made the National weather news it was so bad. We live in a high area, so we don't have to contend with flooding, thank goodness! Of course we were also under a tornado warning and I was terrified. I tried to call Papa on his cell but couldn't get in touch with him. All ended well but I hate it when we get this severe weather. I though we'd missed it since we are in June but it is like the old song title, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year"!! Here are some of the results of that evening.

The ballpark looked like a lake and so did the yards.

Speaking of school and old friends, my best friend all through school's name is Joanna. She and I were inseparable at the time. We were even cheerleaders together. Here are the before and after photographs. We've changed a lot in looks since then, but we're still young at heart.

Her Mother passed away several weeks ago and we decided that it was time that we rekindled that friendship of so long ago. Her Mother was like a second mother to me. I could talk to her about things that I didn't feel I could talk to my own Mother about. Everyone needs someone like that in their lives. Anyway, she and her husband came over last night and we went out for dinner (of course ;-) and had a wonderful visit. We are planning on many more good times together in the near future.

We will have a Family Day tomorrow after we have been to church. Beth and Franklin are hosting this one. I'll post more pictures then. Have a happy week.

XOXO, Pcasso

THE WEDDING!

2009-05-26T17:29:00.007-05:00

We were supposed to go to a wedding in Austin, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to make it.

My friend and Mother of the Bride, Wanda, sent the photographs in the following post that I have made into a slide show. They are a sample of this very special event. If you "mouse over" the photographs in the slide show, you can read the captions. Meredith and Eric make a BEAUTIFUL couple and I wanted to share this special time in their lives with you. The Minshew's are good friends of ours and we are so happy for everyone concerned. We're blessed to have them for our friends.

The wedding and reception took place at the Four Season's Hotel in Austin, Texas. The hotel is located on the banks of Lady Bird Lake (Mrs LBJ) and it is truly a garden of tranquility.

It offers good old Texas hospitality and sophisticated dining, Hill Country style. It was the perfect place for the wedding. It's a great escape for all of us in the DFW area that's close enough for us to drive in a few hours.

XOXO, Pcasso

MINSHEW WEDDING

2009-05-26T17:27:00.000-05:00

MOTHER'S DAY, FAMILY AND BITTERSWEET TIMES

2009-05-20T10:41:00.014-05:00

So much has been going on since I last posted here that I hardly know where to begin.

I'll start with some photographs of several paintings that I ran across that I painted a while back.
Since the fruit trees are in bloom, I thought this painting was appropriate. The weather here is ideal right now, but it will change shortly as we start our annual Texas heat-a-thon.

Another painting I ran across that I painted around the same time are these three little birds.

As much bird watching as we've been doing lately, I have never seen any as colorful as the ones I painted. However, our squirrel is so exhausted from chasing all the birds in the yard, no matter what their color is, that he decided to take a break.

Two weekends ago Franklin and Beth attended a benefit that they go to in Dallas every year. It's called Diffa and it is a fund raiser to help with AIDS research. They looked wonderful that evening.

We kept the boys for the weekend and they stayed in Dallas and celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary that same weekend. Here is a photograph of them when they were dating. It's hard to realize that time has passed so quickly. Seems like only yesterday that we were preparing for the wedding!

We had great fun with the boys. We played some board games

and then they watched several movies that we had on hand.

It's always great fun having them here with us. Their lives are getting so busy that it won't be long and I'm afraid that they won't have a lot of time for Grandparents. That makes me sad but it's a fact of life.

Speaking of weddings, we were supposed to go to the Minshew's daughter's wedding in Austin last weekend, but were unable to attend due to circumstances which I will explain below. They promised to show us lots of photographs, however.

Frank does volunteer work at the hospital and he was recently given is 150 hour pin for his work he does there in the Cardiac Rehabilitation section of the hospital.

He looks so cute in his "uniform" that I had to include a photograph of him. He'll kill me for publishing this one!

Some friends from the church had us over for dinner to help them celebrate their wedding anniversary.

It was a wonderful meal and beautifully presented. Jack even played the role of the wine steward and served us a delicious bottle or two. His "bride" of many years watched him fill this role with great pride.

Another one of my favorite paintings is this Native American woman. I really enjoy using vibrant colors in some of my paintings. They make me smile as they seem so alive, at least to my eye.

Mother's Day was very special for me. We went to church and each Mother was given a flower as we were leaving. That's such a nice touch. I put mine in our guest bathroom and it looked lovely there.

Franklin invited us, Beth's Mom and her sister and her fiancee over for lunch. He cooked for us and served us these delicious chickens.

He's not only a great cook, he's a very gracious host. I feel so blessed to have him for my son.

It was also wonderful to spend time with Beth's sister and her mother. It really made Mother's Day special for all of us.

Franklin and Beth gave me and Maureen these lovely flowers. They are always so thoughtful!

Little did we know that while we were celebrating, our dear friends that we have know for nearly 50 years were suffering a dramatic loss. Mother's Day morning their little 8 year old Grandson was accidentally shot and killed. His brother and a friend were our on their ranch hunting rabbits and the gun discharged and hit Jedrek. It was such a tragedy.

We left last Wednesday morning so we could be with them at this unfortunate time in their lives. We were very close friends when we were all newlyweds and lived in Raton and we have kept in constant touch with them since we left New Mexico over 40 years ago. Larry and Frank are fishing buddies and we have all traveled together on several occasions. My heart aches for each one of them. We're just thankful that we were able to be with them since they are like family to us.

The day after the funeral we left Raton and went to Tucumcari to see our nephew and his family. On our way to Tucumcari we had a near miss. Do you remember the song, "Home, Home on the Range"? Well, there's one less antelope playing there now!

Right after we left Springer (Frank's home town) an antelope appeared from out of nowhere and ran in front of us. We were so fortunate that it didn't come through the windshield! Poor little thing didn't stand a chance and our car lost part of the front bumper and the turn signal light. You don't realize how flimsy cars are made today until part of it is hanging on the road and you drag it along for a couple of hundred miles!

Gary helped Frank trim off the excess "stuff" so we could continue on to Texas.

His daughter, Kaitlyn, graduates from high school this year.

She is not only graduating, she's graduating with honors ... Valedictorian of her class! We're so proud of her.

She was also Prom Queen and she looked so pretty that night.

I talked her Mom out of this photograph of her since we couldn't be there for the actual event.

We arrived home safely and as always, it was good to be back. We continue to pray for the Stolarczyk family in their time of loss and for the repose of the soul of little Jedrek. I ask you to please do the same.

I'll post more a little later. My thanks to each of you who have supported this family in prayer. They're very special people and prayer will help them get through this.

XOXO, Pcasso

THREE FRENCH CHICKS, FRIENDS AND FAREWELLS

2009-04-28T07:15:00.015-05:00

This has been a very busy time for me. It seems as though the faster I go, the behinder I get! I took some time out and did a little painting. I call this one "Three French Chicks".

They are painted on individual 6x6 canvases and then framed together in one frame. My grandson, Nicholas, is making frames for me He is very talented and does a great job. Speaking of Nicholas, I was on one of my all too frequent "scavenger hunts" last week (that's what we call it when we are looking for something we have carefully put away). This seems to be our favorite pastimes around our house now that we're in the twilight years of our lives. I ran across this photograph.

A friend of my Mother's painted this when Rachel and Nicholas were 2 and 4 years old. Here they are now, 28 years later. Same precious children but bigger and better, older and wiser.

It's such fun when you run across treasures such as these, especially when they're unexpected.

I have noticed that sometimes the verbiage in my posts will appear to be broken or some of the text has lines through it. If you are having this challenge, you can double right click on the right hand side of the text it will correct this error. I have no idea why this does this and I apologize for the inconvenience.

The last couple of weeks have been very full. I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon that my friend, Diane (I have several Diane friends ;-) gave for her sister-in law who was in town from Florida. Her husband George and I were Email friends for years but I had never met Ruthie.

It was a lovely luncheon and gave me the opportunity not only to meet Ruthie but also to visit with old friends.

The next day I went to lunch with an artist friend of mine, Claire. I had not seen her in several months and it was wonderful to be able to catch up on things.

We have painted together for several years but somehow in our busy lives, we don't see each other as often as we used to.

Then last weekend we celebrated a big birthday with our friend, Steve.

I won't say how many years he's been around but the number ends with a zero ;-)

I took a break from lunches for a day and did more bird watching. These lovely little Finches are back again and we just love to watch them as they feed in our back yard. The finch feeder was empty so they went to this one until Frank could fet theirs refilled.

I had no idea that these little beauties could be so mean. When they are on their own feeder, there are only 6 perches as you can see below, and they fight for their spots. There were 11 of them there this day and the battle was on. Between the birds and the squirrels we manage to keep ourselves amused when we're home.

The next day we went to Piccolo Mondo for lunch with our good friends, the Walkers. It's a great place for a nice meal and it's quiet so you can really visit.

It's also a real pleasure to not have the dishes to do once the meal is over!

I received an Email from my "other" Diane friend with a site to check out that has her Grandson as the star. He lives in Virginia and has a band.

It was so much fun listening to him and seeing what he was up to. She and her daughter were "Groupies" along with us when Franklin had his band when he was in college, so this brought back lots of memories. Franklin's band was called Temper Temper and EJ's group is Braves and Bullets.

I always wonder where and how they come up with these names!

Last Saturday we attended another party for the Minshew's daughter. It was a couples shower with dinner and the meal was catered by Babe's. In case you're not familiar with Babe's, they have the best fried chicken in the WORLD!

We don't have a Babe's here yet, but it is rumored that we will have one soon. we can't wait!

We had a farewell reception for Father Matkin at our parish on Sunday. He and his family will be moving to Comanche, Texas where he will be the Vicar of 2 parishes, one in Comanche and one in Dublin. It was a bittersweet time as we all love him to death and will miss him terribly. There is a slide show following this post with some of the photographs that I took at the reception. If you put the mouse over each photo as it comes by you can read the captions.

Then on Monday we had our final Book Club meeting with him as our leader and teacher.

This is the front of the card that I designed for him. We finally finished Henry VIII and I must admit, I'm a little thankful that I'm through with the book. It was one of the most difficult studies that I have undertaken ... HOWEVER ... thanks to Fr. Matkin's teaching and wisdom, we all agreed that we learned SO much about English history and the Church. We gave him this bookmark as a reminder that we, as his students, will always think of him when we study and learn.

The lone gentleman in this study (aside from Fr. Matkin) picked it out, and I must say that he has wonderful taste!

He seemed very pleased with the selection.

Father's wife, Melisa, is an artist and this is a sketch that she did of their darling daughter, Maddy. I copied it and put it on the front of a card to go with the gift we gave to this precious child.

We started our Monday morning as we always do, with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The altar in the chapel was given by us in memory of our son, Jim. That always makes going in there very special for us as it is a reminder to us that he is with Christ now. What a blessing!

Once the celebrating was over, we settled down and finished our book and our study.

We are going to miss all the wonderful wisdom and insight that we were given through his teachings. The churches where he is going have no idea what a blessing he is going to be for them. And now we, his students from the Monday Book Club, bid him a fond farewell and say we love you and will miss you. "Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord".

XOXO, Pcasso

FATHER MATKIN'S FAREWELL PARTY

2009-04-28T06:20:00.000-05:00

HENRY, LUTHER, THE TUDORS, EASTER AND FAMILY FUN

2009-04-13T08:58:00.015-05:00

If you've been following my blog, you know that I've been studying Henry VIII and the history of the Reformation and the Church of England.

I'm suddenly fascinated with this time in history and can't seem to get enough information about it in this old brain of mine. While I was "Googling" I ran across these images of Martin Luther's hymnal and Bible. I thought these were very interesting artifacts.

My Great Aunt was married to Frank Wassall who was the brother of Dr. Sam Wassall who was responsible for the vaccine to cure Malaria, and I have the Wassall family Book of Common Prayer which I really treasure. Guess that's why I'm so interested in old books.

I've also been watching The Tudors on Showtime and that has really peaked my interest in English history. As a gift to myself, I have purchased seasons 1 & 2 of this series. It's really fascinating.

Since I'm such a visual person, I find it much easier to retain facts if I can see them as well as read about them. Season 3 has just started and is on Showtime on Sunday nights. I highly recommend watching it. I never realized how truly mean Henry turned out to be. One thing's certain ... you don't ever want to be sent to the Tower for a "visit". The chances of your returning are pretty slim!

My dear friend and prayer partner, Diane, had a birthday last week and I painted this little butterfly for her. I feel as though our friendship is like a metamorphosis .. always changing and growing, so the butterfly painting seemed appropriate for this occasion. She appeared to really like it.

We had the pleasure and privilege of seeing the Monarch Butterflies when we were in Pacific Grove in California. They are so beautiful and fascinating to watch.
I took a break from study and The Tudors to get ready for Easter on Saturday. Last week was Holy week and we were extremely busy with church activities. There is a slide show following this entry if you'd like to take a look. Most of the photographs in this show are taken from Father Matkin's blog. He's so good about keeping all of the parishioners up to date with photos of things going on around the church. My thanks to him for his many talents.

We attended daily mass last week so on Saturday I decided that I'd better get my act together and get ready for the family gathering here on Sunday.
The first thing I did was to set the tables.

I've always loved these little dancing rabbits so they make their appearance each Easter.

Once the tables were set, Frank and I went grocery shopping. He's always such a dear to help me out on all occasions but especially on holidays. Easter is so very special to us for many reasons. We MET on an Easter Sunday 53 years ago, so it's a very important day in our lives as a couple and a family.

We've changed a little since then, but our love for each other had not changed. it's only grown.
While we were shopping we found these wonderful strawberries, so I decided to give the boys a special treat. They aren't always as interested in the desserts that the adults have, so I had a special plan for them. These particular strawberries were almost as large as a small egg. They are amazing!

As soon as we returned home, I started to prepare the big people's dessert. For some reason, Easter brings Pineapple Upside Down Cake to my mind.

Here is the pattern that I made in the bottom of this huge cake pan. The fruit and nuts are sitting on a caramelized glaze on the bottom of the pan. Of course when we turn this cake out, this will be the top .... and here it is .... Voila!

Sunday morning after church I hurried home to put the ham in the oven, slice the tomatoes and green onions. I had already cooked the navy beans on Saturday, so with the exception of cooking the ham and the cornbread, the meal is almost ready.

Ian arrived wearing his new Fedora. When I told him that he reminded me of Justin Timberlake, he didn't take that as a compliment even though I meant it as one!

Connor helped devil some eggs for snacks when they first arrived. He's lots of help in the kitchen. We were waiting for Ethan to arrive so we could all get started. It was great that the entire family was present!

And here comes Peter Cottontail! Actually, this is a painting that I did a little while back that is painted in the style of Albrect Duerer.

The day started out to be very dreary with lots of rain but about 1:00 it started to clear up and turned out to be a beautiful day after all. My ham turned out well also ;-) I might add that it was delicious.

After the meal was finished, I brought out the boy's surprise. They loved the warm, melted chocolate that they could dip these wonderful strawberries in.

That's an egg sitting on the table, so that will give you an idea of the size of the berries!

Dayna was checking out the family pictures that grace our refrigerator. Those of you who have been to the house know all about our "fun wall" in the bar. We have photographs everywhere! It's a visual history of our lives.

The boys decided that they needed to go for a swim and we had heated the Jacuzzi in anticipation of this decision. They put on their swimsuits and we put on our jackets and out we went.

Harry even got in on the act. He always wants to be in the middle of everything and he always is!

The boys debated for a long time and then finally decided that they might try the pool which is NOT heated.

Connor checked with his folks to see if it would be all right.

I only wish that I would have always said yes to my own children when they wanted to swim and it was still too cold. They would not have stayed in the water very long and would not have asked to go in again for a very long time! Guess we get wiser with age!

Franklin was checking his IPhone to see what the temperature was (and also to check on the golf scores at the Masters). We need to get a TV for the deck. It would make life much simpler.

Ethan, out Great grandson is getting so big. He's 14 now and it seems like only yesterday that I was babysitting him as a cute little boy. Now he's a handsome young man. The young ladies had better watch out!!!

The weather warmed up to nearly 70 degrees so the jackets came off and everyone enjoyed basking in the Easter sunshine.

Since tomorrow is a school day, the troops left about 6:00 p.m. My baby boys are growing up They're all such cutie pies! After all, if you have a skateboard, wear a fedora and bring your own champagne, how can you miss?

Have a great week. I'll write again when I have something to say!

XOXO, Pcasso

HOLY WEEK AT ST. ALBAN'S

2009-04-13T08:44:00.001-05:00

THE CHARLESTON AND A MODEL A

2009-04-04T13:52:00.007-05:00

Since we did so well with our tango, which is 3 short posts down, that we decided to change the mood and take you back to the Roaring Twenties. The post below this one is self explanatory. Here's our vehicle that we arrived at the competition in :-) Enjoy!!!

XOXO, Pcasso

ONE MORE TIME

2009-04-04T13:50:00.001-05:00

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ABOUT OUR AUDITION

2009-04-03T18:58:00.004-05:00

We decided to stop being armchair dancers and try out for Dancing With the Stars. Check out the following post. Do you think we can make it? (You may have to click on the square to get it to load) Let me know what you think.
XOXO, Pcasso

OUR AUDITION

2009-04-03T18:58:00.001-05:00

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PAINTINGS, PARTIES, DWTS, AI AND THE TANGO!

2009-04-02T09:17:00.013-05:00

The beginning of the week brought some really freaky weather to our area. As we were driving over to Fort Worth to deliver a painting, the skies contained the most threatening looking clouds that I've ever seen.

By God's grace we didn't have any really severe weather to accompany this dark, voluminous sky aside from a torrential downpour. When the skies in Texas look like this in the springtime, you're always prepared for tornado watches and warnings. I always feel that I need to sleep fully clothed during April and May in case I have to either hide in the bathroom or make a run for it. I'd hate to be caught in my tacky old nightgown for all the world to see. Tornadoes are the price you pay when you live in Texas, but the rest of the year makes it worth it!

On Saturday I went to a shower for a friend's daughter's wedding. The invitation was so darling that I thought I'd include a photo of it.

The girl on the invitation is almost as cute as the bride to be.

I was blessed to have sold 2 more of my paintings last week. One was a watercolor and when we delivered it, Frank said once again that my watercolors were among his favorites. With that in mind, I brought out the watercolors once again and started to paint.

The Irises in our front yard are blooming right now, so that seemed an appropriate subject for this little painting.

Of course, everyone always has orange juice on hand. Some of our friends with whom we go to church on Sunday morning will be coming over this weekend for a brunch, so we will need OJ for our Mimosas.

I then decided to paint something really funky, so this piece which I call "Travelin' Time" seemed to fit the bill. It makes a great greeting card.

There is a quotation from Oscar Wilde on it that reads, "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something SENSATIONAL to read on the train!" In my case that should read, "I never travel without my blog" ;-)

And speaking of blogs, I always play a CD while I'm writing ... seems to help my thought process. To get in the mood this morning, I'm playing a new Diana Krall CD entitled Quiet Nights. It's great!

It has wonderful, soft Latin American music on it and is perfect to set the mood for my ramblings. This style of music is one of my favorites ... however, I like ALL kinds of music. That's one reason that Frank and I are such big fans of American Idol.

And speaking of American Idol, my favorite this year is a young man whose name is Adam Lambert. (My folks lived on Lambert Avenue and Adam was the first and #1 man, so that may explain it!) He's a rocker and so are my son and grandson, so that may be my interest in his kind of music. We've been groupies for the past 40 years and have loved every minute of it.

Adam's also pretty easy on the eyes! Last week he changed his look completely as well as his style and sang a soft, romantic song. It was as good as the other things he does. He even looks a little like Elvis Pressley. I'm not a big fan of Elvis but we did have the opportunity to meet him in Las Vegas once.

Jimmy Dean is a friend of ours and he took us to Elvis' penthouse at the Landmark Hotel to meet him back in the 70's. I must admit that it was pretty exciting and he (Elvis) was very hospitable and a gracious host. Wish I'd had my camera with me at the time! Here is one photograph of me and Jimmy way back when.

This one is a shot I did manage to have taken by the Hotel photographer at the Desert Inn where Jimmy usually starred. The other young man in the photograph is Terry Blackwood who is one of the Blackwood Brothers. His group were backup singers for Elvis. They were all Gospel singers together before Elvis hit it "big" and he always treated his friends well. Terry used to come and stay with us when he was in the Metroplex area. Nice young man. As I understand it, he still has his group and they're still singing Gospel after all these years. Thank goodness the styles have changed. Don't you just love Jimmy's pants! I'm thankful that double-knit polyester is out.

Here is another shot of Adam with his Elvis look.

Here is a link to his performance this week. The song he is singing is "Play That Funky Music" and it's the ring tone that I have on my cell phone. I always know when it's my phone that is ringing! Check it out. He's HOT!

Adam Lambert: Play That Funky Music - Performances - American Idol

And speaking of hot, I also love Dancing With The Stars and my favorite dancer on it is Gilles Marini. He's gorgeous. Frank says that I have always liked the dark, greasy type and he may be right. I didn't marry one, but he is Hispanic, so that should count for something ;-)

This week he danced to the Argentinian Tango and scored the first perfect score of the season. That, to me, is the most romantic and sexy dance of all and he was WONDERFUL!

These photographs from the show pretty well show what I'm talking about. If you are interested in the tango, here is a clip that I found that is a perfect example of the dance. There are other clips at this site as well.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tangoclasses

To fit the mood, here is one of my paintings with a fedora in it (another watercolor) that is similar to the ones that the dancers in Argentina wear.

There is also a wonderful movie about the tango with Robert Duvall. It's entitled "Assassination Tango" and I highly recommend it. We've watched it several times and it's very good.

Having been to Buenos Aries, we really appreciate the dance and the music. Years ago we saw the musical, "Tango Argentina" and that's when I fell in love with the dance. When done right, there's nothing like it. It I was younger and about 50 pounds lighter, Arthur Murray would have me in his arms right now teaching me how to do it ... or better still ... Gilles :-)

With this fantasy, I think I'll close for the day. Next week is Holy Week and we'll be going to mass each day. Easter Sunday is just around the corner. Enjoy this most blessed time.

XOXO, Pcasso

RELATIVES AND RISTRAS

2009-03-24T09:50:00.007-05:00

This past week was a typical week in Lent. We attended the Lenten series at St. Andrew's in downtown Fort Worth on Wednesday where the Rt. Rev'd John Guernsey was the guest preacher. He's a wonderful preacher and teacher and we learned a lot.

The stained glass windows there are remarkable and it gives you such a peaceful feeling to sit in their Nave and study the windows while you are listening to the organ concert that precedes the noonday service.

Last Monday was my Father's birthday. He was born on St. Patrick's Day and would be 105 if he was still alive. He was a sweet and a very handsome man and I still miss him very much.

On Sunday we had a Family Day gathering. It was at Nicholas and Dayna's this time and we had a wonderful time.

They live in Dallas now, so we had a 30 mile drive to get there which wasn't bad at all. We are so blessed to have the family near by. We have friends who don't get to see their children and grandchildren as often as we do and they are missing out on a lot.

Ian had just returned from a skiing trip to Vail the day before where he spent the week with his good friend, Billy, and his Mother. It was spring break in the Metroplex, so all the young ones were out of school.

Ethan followed Connor's lead and spent the day on his hand held Gameboy (I think that's what you call it)

Those little machines have turned our youth into anti-social creatures who never interact with people anymore. It's a pity as we'd love to talk to them and visit about what's going on in their lives. The art of conversation is no longer a subject with lots of the young people and that's a shame. They don't know what they're missing! Guess I'm just old fashioned but I liked it when we all visited with one another.
Nicholas and Dayna were the perfect host and hostess.

It was a real treat for Frank and me to be able to go to their home and be guests instead of the ones doing everything. Nick prepared fajitas and they were delicious. The rest of us brought snacks and dessert and that made it easy for everyone. We will have Easter dinner at our house and then Beth and Franklin will host the next Family Day in May.

While he was cooking, Franklin played a game or two of Frisbee Golf and he was really good at it. Frisbee golf (also called Disc Golf or frolf) is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc."

For the first time in a long time, everyone was there that day!

We even had a new family member there. I think his name is Dangle and he's a Bearded Dragon.

He even has his own "desert dwelling" in Nicholas' office.

I am told that Bearded Dragons are popular exotic pets, most commonly Pogona vitticeps, the Inland or Central Bearded Dragon. They are a popular species , because of their friendly and calm nature, along with the relative ease of caring for them.

I, personally, would rather have a cat or a dog, but to each his own!

We also noticed a family resemblance that we hadn't discovered before. It seems that Franklin and Nicholas now have the same "hairline".

There again, I'd rather have a cat or a dog than a shaved head!

I returned to my Easel early this week. I was commissioned by a client who lives in Las Vegas to paint some Chilies for her. Here is the final painting. It's 8x10 on a Gallery wrapped canvas and she really liked it. So do I!

It was good to be back to my paints again. It's been a while and I really miss painting. Life sometimes just gets in the way ;-)

I'll be writing again as soon as something new or interesting happens in our lives. We still Dance with the Stars each week as well as sing along with American Idol wannabe's, so that keeps us content in the evenings.

Take care and have a good rest of the week.

XOXO, Pcasso

FRENCH FOOD. FRIENDS AND FUN

2009-03-16T07:49:00.008-05:00

We have had another busy week. Aside from studying and doing the usualt things, we went to a little French restaurant last Friday night with friends from Dallas.

Walter is an antique dealer and they were in Fort Worth this weekend as there was a show there, so they called us and we joined them for dinner.

Saint Emilion is a quaint little place and they start you out with a blackboard filled with the specialties of the day.

Of course, as soon as you have selected what you want to eat. the somelier magically appears with wine suggestions to accompany your meal.

The wine list was extensive and expensive, so we settled on something that was suggested and it was the perfect compliment for our food.

There was a large selection of appetizers and they were all very good.

As you know, I love to cook and I really love to eat, so I always take photographs of the food both at home and when we are out.

I had a mixed green salad which was followed by a steak and pomme frite. As good as it looked, I was a little disappointed in my entree as the steak was tough. What a disappointment!

However, I wasn't disappointed very long. Dessert came and it was wonderful! I had the Moitié - Moitié, which is a tarte that is topped with half raspberries and half chocolate. It was dark chocolate and I'm a milk chocolate person, but this was to die for!

Anne had Oeuf à la Neige which is also known as a Floating Island. It consisted of poached soft meringue on top of a rich English custard with caramel sauce drizzled over the top. She said that it was delicious.

It was a delightful evening and we had a great time with old friends. Don't remember if I mentioned this before, but we met on a cruise in the Mediterranean three years ago and have seen a lot of one another since then. They live in Dallas and have a second home in Santa Fe (does that sound familiar?), so we are with them both at home and at our homes away from home!

We took Saturday off and had what I call a "gown day". It was wonderful to have a full 24 hours to do absolutely nothing. It was a dreary, rainy day, so I took advantage of the weather and read a book and stewed a chicken for our evening meal of chicken and dumplings.

I make drop dumplings using Bisquick and they are always good. They make this wonderful rich gravy as they cook and you can put it both on the chicken as well as the dumplings. It was the perfect comfort food to end a very comfortable stay at home day.

We attended church yesterday morning, went to breakfast with friends after as we always do, and then had a party to attend in the late afternoon. We were going to Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth to help celebrate Donna Iker's birthday.

I'll be nice and not tell which birthday it was. All I can say is that she still looks like a teenager and is as beautiful as ever.

We all had a wonderful time and were back home by 9:00. I gave her one of my paintings for her birthday. It's entitled "Fruit of the Wine" and I hope that she likes it. She promised her grandchildren that they could help her open her gifts, so she took them all home with her unopened so they could enjoy that part of her special day.

I have a busy week ahead and am really looking forward to next weekend for several reasons. We will have our family day over at Nicholas and Dayna's home on Sunday and my dear friend from childhood will be coming in town from California for a week's visit. We have promised to spend some time together, so I'm really looking forward to that. We were to have seen him when we were in California several weeks ago, but if you remember, we had to cancel the trip as poor Frank had the flu. We're all up and running now, so maybe things will work out better this time!

Speaking of running, I'd better run and get ready for church and book club. I'm looking forward to Father Matkin's lecture to help me understand what I've been reading! Have a good week. I'll be back in touch soon.

XOXO, Pcasso

MY LITTLE ROCK STAR!

2009-03-12T08:49:00.004-05:00

I was finally able to figure out how to post this video of Ian at J. Gilligan's which is a local pub. He and his group, "Save the Assassins" played for a benefit for Arlington High School. It was a fund raiser. It was a fun evening and they had a really big crowd there. He's a really good guitarist and be sure to keep in mind that he's only 11 years old. He has, however, been playing the guitar since he was 5. Enjoy as best you can. It's rock, so be prepared ;-)

XOXO, Pcasso

GUESTS, GILLIGANS,FOOD AND HENRY VIII

2009-03-09T16:27:00.017-05:00

It has been an extremely busy couple of weeks around here and we've loved every minute of it. To begin with, we were hungry for something different so I decided to make a Chicken Pot Pie from scratch (sort of)
Frank is always very complimentary of my cooking, but he said that this was the best Chicken Pot Pie that he had ever eaten and that's saying something!
One of the best things about it is that it is really easy to make and this along with a salad makes a delightful meal.
I stewed a whole chicken so that made it especially good. You could also buy a pre-cooked bird, but I don't think the flavors would be as interesting. Here is the recipe just in case you're interested and it's pretty and good enough to serve to guests!
It's a quick meal! Ready in less than 30 minutes if you don't stew your own chicken!

Classic Chicken Pot Pie
Prep Time: 25 min ; Start to Finish: 1 hr 5 min
Makes: 6 servings
What makes a classic? Chicken and mixed vegetables in a rich homemade white sauce fill a flaky pie crust that's perfection.
Crust
1 box (15 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth (I used the broth I cooked the chicken in)
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
2 cups Green Giant® frozen mixed vegetables (from 1-lb bag), thawed

Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crusts as directed on box for Two-Crust Pie using 9-inch glass pie pan.
In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened.
Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spoon chicken mixture into crust-lined pan. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. During last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
We're into our second week in Lent and I've been really busy studying and doing special things for this time in the Church year. Each Wednesday there is an Organ Recital followed by a noonday service with Bishops in the Anglican Communion as guest speakers which is held at St. Andrews Church in downtown Fort Worth. Last week our own Bishop, The Rt. Rev'd. Jack Iker was the guest preacher. He gave an inspiring sermon which more than 100 people were blessed to have been able to hear. There will be a different Bishop there each Wednesday during Lent. The service is followed by a light luncheon and you have the opportunity to visit with and share with other Anglicans. It's always nice to be with old friend as well as new acquaintances. The Hartley's went as well (we all attend St. Alban's in Arlington) and we plan on attending all of the services in this series together.
On that same Wednesday night we attended a Lenten series at our own parish. We are studying "The Snakebite Letters". Our clergy are taking turns leading this discussion each Wednesday during the Lenten season.
The Snakebite Letters are described as Devilishly Devious Secrets for Subverting Society As Taught in Tempter's Training School

This is a followup to C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, and, while not as good as the original, it is an excellent way to get a "tour" of the current problems in the church. It has the merit of a humorous approach to problems ranging from priests and professors who discourage faith in Catholic colleges to a short discussion of confusion and its role in teaching people that sophistication is better than truth.

We will gather each Wednesday night during Lent for the Holy Eucharist followed by a meatless meal that we will share, and then discuss the book in general, then break into small groups to discuss the book and share our own ideas. It's a wonderful time of fellowship, discussion and learning.
Along the same lines but in a much heavier vein, we are studying a book written by Henry VIII in our Monday Book Club.

Most Christians identify King Henry VIII as a co-founder of the Protestant Reformation, along with Martin Luther. However, prior to his schism from Rome and persecution of Catholics in England, Henry was an accomplished theologian and staunch defender of the Catholic Faith. He was even granted the title, Defender of the Faith, by Pope Leo X for writing his masterpiece Defence of the Seven Sacraments.

In 1521, the staunchly Catholic King Henry VIII of England wrote a theological treatise “Assertio Septem Sacramentorum” (aka. a "Defence of the Seven Sacraments") as a rebuttal of Martin Luther’s "Babylonian Captivity of the Church," in which the reformer had crossed the line from reformer to revolutionary, attacking the doctrine of the sacraments and describing the pope as the "antichrist." King Henry received the title "Defender of the Faith" from Pope Leo X for his work of refuting Protestant heresies. This new edition of the "Assertio" (edited by our very own Father Matkin) reprints the English (only) text of Henry's work along with Fr. Louis O'Donovan's classic analysis and commentary, plus three new appendices: A historical timeline of events, the text of Henry's Six Articles of Religion, as well as Fr. E.S. Buchanan's translation of Luther's scathing reply to Henry and his “Assertio Septem Sacramentorum.” Though a crucial element of our Anglican heritage, this classic writing was largely forgotten, until now.

I must admit that I'm lost a great deal of the time in this study, but it is fascinating and I'm finding that after Father Matkin discusses what we have read with us, the picture is becoming more clear to me. I've really had my nose to the grindstone the past 10 days (it's just like I'm back in school again with all of the assignments) but I've decided that you're never too old to learn.

Now, on a much lighter note, last Friday was extremely busy. We were invited to a private tour of the new Cowboy Stadium which is nearing completion. After much serious thought, I decided to pass and let Frank go and be my "eyes" through the lens of one of my cameras. There was a tremendous amount of walking and stair climbing and I thought I might slow the group down too much. After the tour, Frank said that I had made the wise choice. Since we have season tickets to the games, I'll have a chance to visit the stadium a lot in the years to come.

Above is a photograph of the stadium last October, so you can see that they have come a long way. It's supposed to be completed in 3 months. I've included a slide show at the end of this blog so you can see the interior and all of the activity that's going on there.

There are two huge arches that are the main supporting structures for the entire stadium. The one above looks out onto our baseball complex, Ranger Stadium.Here is one view of the interior. As my daughter-in-law would say, "It's gy-normous". Depending on what event is going on inside, that have the capabilities of seating 140,000 people. That's a bunch of folks!

The huge LED scoreboard had panels on each side as well as facing the end zones and stretches from one 20 yard line to the other. It's really amazing.

It is said that you can stand the Statue of Liberty up under the scoreboard inside and it would not reach the bottom of the board. You can also lay the Empire State building on it's side inside and still have room to spare on each end. This structure could probably be classified as the 8th Wonder of the World as it is the largest sports arena in the world.
Here are a few shots of Papa and his compadres as they are taking the tour. They were happy campers!

Frank thought that he had spied some of the cheerleaders practicing, so he tried to get a shot of them. He was really sorry that he didn't have his binoculars with him so he could get a closer look ;-)

These trucks looked like little ants as they were delivering supplies to the workers.

This is a shot of the exterior as it is today. They're almost ready for opening day!

There will also be another scoreboard outside so the tailgaters will be able to see what's going on inside and won't miss any of the action.
We had a wonderful surprise bestowed upon us in the midst of all the goings on. We had met these delightful people when we were on a cruise in Antarctica. They live in Newfoundland, but they also have another home in Florida (wise move to have a place to get out of the cold) We have the opposite situation ... a place in Santa Fe to get out of the Texas heat in the summer!
Anyway .... we received a phone call that they were in Texas and were coming by to see us. I had extended the invitation to come by anytime to dirty a few ice cubes with us and they took us up on it! We have stayed in touch over the years so it was delightful to find out that they would be in town. We spent time together in South America as well as Antarctica and truly enjoyed each other's company. They were in Texas visiting other "Newfie" friends in Austin, so the four of them came up for drinks and dinner.

After drinks here at the house, we went to Piccolo Mondo which is a lovely little restaurant for a wonderful meal.

I had my usual Spinach Ravioli which is always delicious.

There was music during dinner which always adds a nice touch.

We also saw quite a few people we know who were also there, so that was great since we could introduce our Newfie friends to them.
As we were leaving, Antonio, the owner, asked if he could take our photograph. I'm so glad that he did as it's a good shot of everyone. Tom, our friend, went to school with Dave in St. John's. They grew up together. The four of us had a delightful time sharing stories and laughing and enjoying one another's company. We love meeting and entertaining new people and when friends bring friends along, we always feel that the more the merrier is the perfect motto. I might add, it was a very merry night. I can't remember when I've laughed so much. A good time was had by all!
The next morning we joined the at their hotel for breakfast and took them by the new stadium so they could get a closer look. It was here that we said our goodbyes and hope that we will all meet again soon.

Saturday night was another big night for us. Ian, our 11 year old grandson, had a "gig" at Gilligan's, a local pub, where he and his band were playing. It was a fund raiser for one of the local high schools. His group is called "Save the Assassins" and the were good and they were loud. The music was not for the faint hearted! They played to a full house and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I tried to include a video but sometimes I'm electronically challenged, and this seems to be one of those days! Here are a few shots from last Saturday night.

Here are Franklin and Ian. Franklin used to help them out with vocals and his guitar, but they've "outgrown" that, so he runs sound for them now. Seems that the next generation is taking over!

I can't really tell if it's a proud Papa or a proud son here. Probabaly both :-) Since our eldest son was a musician, Frank and I have been groupies for over 40 years and have loved every minute of it!

Yesterday was our typical Sunday with church, breakfast and another evening gathering of Ultreya at our parish. Mid-afternoon we decided to watch a movie and it was wonderful. It was one that I got from Netrflix that I had not only never seen, but had never even heard of! It was entitled "Snow Cake" and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it.

Snow Cake is a 2006 independent drama film starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire, and Callum Keith Rennie. It was released on September 8, 2006 in the UK.
Filmed in Wawa, Ontario, Snow Cake is a drama about the friendship between Linda, an autistic woman (Weaver), and Alex (Rickman) who is traumatized after a car accident involving himself and Linda's daughter (Hampshire).
Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver form the quintessential indie-film odd couple in this intimately observed drama that makes a memorable detour from the usual high-concept, special effects-laden studio fare. Rickman is in his element as Alex, a morose, laconic ex-con just released from prison. A tragic twist of fate brings him to a Canadian small town and the doorstep of Linda, a functional autistic woman with a decidedly anti-social personality. Weaver is a wonder in a fiercely committed, vanity-free performance. "I don't like normal people," Linda states, and neither does Snow Cake, the heart of which is clearly with the outcasts and misfits, including Vivienne (Emily Hampshire), Linda's vivacious, hitchhiking daughter, who bums a ride with Alex because he looks lonely ("Lonely people have the best stories," she observes) and Linda's neighbor, Maggie (Carrie-Ann Moss), a nurturing type who is very quick to take damaged soul Alex into her bed. This is a palpably heartfelt project (screenwriter Angela Pell has an autistic daughter) that--the unfortunate title notwithstanding--mostly manages to avoid the cloying or manipulative. The smiling faces pictured on the DVD cover suggest an upbeat romantic comedy, but Snow Cake is a slice of something much more filling. It's a delightful film and I'm sure I'll watch it again.

It's time to bring this long missal to a close. I promise not to be so "wordy" next time, but a lot has happend since I last posted.

There are several more exciting things about to happen soon, at least for me, so stay tuned.

XOXO, Pcasso

NEW COWBOY STADIUM TOUR

2009-03-09T16:23:00.002-05:00

BIRTHDAYS, DINNER PARTIES AND THE TALL & SHORT OF IT

2009-02-23T10:36:00.028-06:00

To begin with, our precious great-great nephew, Jack, just turned two (I think I have enough greats in there!) This is the most recent photograph that we have of him. He's a beautiful child and we are so blessed to have him in the family!

I have had a really busy past week or so. Mid-week several of us celebrated another artist friend's birthday.

There are five of us who get together on our birthdays and have lunch together. We used to all paint together but somehow life has gotten in the way. We all still paint, but not together on a regular basis anymore.

Then on Friday night the "Gang" had a get together and we had a great dinner party at our friend's house.

As always, a good time was had by all. How can you miss with good friends and fellowship!

On Saturday Franklin and Papa went to the hockey game in Dallas.They said that the game was pitiful (the Stars lost) but they had a great time just being together. At least they were dressed as the staunch supporters that they are. I think it's wonderful when father and son can spend quality time together with just the guys. That's very special to us .. especially as we grow older. We really appreciate the time that our children spend with us. They are the lights of our lives.

As soon as we returned from church yesterday I started preparing for Family Day and family birthday celebrations. Once I was out of my church clothes, I started baking. I made a chocolate cobbler that was absolutely to die for! It was the first time I have made it, so I kept my fingers crossed with the hope that it would turn out well. It's not the best looking finished product that I've ever seen, but the aroma coming from the kitchen as it was cooking was unbelievable. The house was filled with the delicious smell of chocolate so I couldn't have gone too wrong! Plus ... it makes it's own chocolate sauce right in the pan.

When they first arrived, Frank decided to have the kids play a game called "Leap Frog" on the computer. It's quite a challenge and it took all 3 of them to figure it out.

Even though Connor is our computer whiz kid, he couldn't figure it out on his own. He wanted to know if the winner got a cash prize but we told him not today!

Here is the link if you want to try the challenge yourself.

Frog Leap Test

I understand that second graders in China can solve this, but this old woman had a very difficult time. I also know that I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader :-)

Since Harry is part of the family now (he's our Granddog), he decided to give one of our furry friends a run for their money.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that he was licking his chops after dining on Squirrel Stew. Actually, he'd just finished polishing off a T-bone that we had saved for him from a previous meal.

We have decided to rotate where we will have family day each month, so we have made a plan to make it as easy as possible for the "host" person. We also decided that we would always play some games as we are a competitive bunch and all enjoy the fun.

I had bought the Seinfeld edition of "Scene It" so as soon as we all had a little libation in our hands, we popped the DVD in and started to play.

We had a very competitive game ... girls against the guys ... and the girls won. Yeah!!!

We were celebrating Ethan's 14th birthday, Rachel's 32nd and Dayna's 30th, so it was time to open the gifts. They made such a cute looking group that I couldn't resist taking a photo of the birthday people.

The girls posed for me with their new handbags. Ethan had already put his gift cards and money in his pocket.

The weather was beautiful, so we went outside on the deck and the boys went in the jacuzzi and the pool (they nearly froze to death in the pool) We enjoyed Margaritas and Chili con Queso while they were swimming.

We started the mega eat-a-thon with Chili con Queso and Margaritas. I opted to serve pizza for dinner which we ordered from Biraporetti.

Before we ordered the pizza, we had a rematch of Seinfeld Scene It and the girls won again. Ian couldn't resist putting on some old glasses of mine and acting like an alien. The teeth were almost the last straw. He looked so awful to be such a cute boy. Needless to say, with a team effort, we won the rematch. Way to go gang!

After we finished the pizza, we had dessert. The Chocolate Cobbler was amazing! I served it warm and topped it with vanilla ice cream. The family said that it was even better than my chocolate souffles that I make and it was a lot less trouble!

Here is the recipe if you are interested in making a favorable impression!

Chocolate Cobbler

1 & 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided into 3/4 cup and 1/2 cup
1 cup all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons cocoa, divided into 3 tablespoons and 4 tablespoons
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 & 1/2 cups hot water
Preheat oven to 350°.
Stir together 3/4 cup sugar, flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Pour into an ungreased 8-inch square glass baking pan.
In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, and 4 tablespoons cocoa. Sprinkle evenly over batter. Pour hot water over the top. Do not stir.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Let stand for 15 minutes, then serve. Use the chocolate sauce in the bottom of the pan to spoon over servings. Garnish, if desired, with ice cream or whipped cream.
Makes 8 servings.

Everyone went home around 7:00 and we proceeded to watch the Oscars.

I thought they were a class act this year and enjoyed everything except the political speeches. Frank and I are big movie buffs and could watch movies 24/7, so this was right up our alley.
Franklin checked his I-phone just before they left to make sure he was up to date on his messages,

and when they hugged goodbye, we all realized how tall Nicholas is and how tiny Beth is .... and to think that he's her baby nephew in law!

As I was finishing this post, I heard this loud crash and then a woman scream so I rushed outside to see what had happened.

We live down the street from an elementary school and I was afraid that a child had been hit since school was just letting out. As it happened, this young woman was late picking up her child, wasn't paying attention to what she was doing (was probably on her cell phone) and plowed into a car that was parked in front of our house. Both cars were damaged pretty badly, but no one was seriously hurt .... thank goodness! We had a fire truck, police cars and wreckers here for over an hour.

Papa stayed around to see if there was anything that he could do to help. As soon as I realized that everyone was all right, I grabbed my camera so I could document the event.

Needless to say, there's never a dull moment around here! We called 911 as the woman who hit the car was so hysterical that she couldn't do anything but cry. It was a brand new card and the poor thing was so upset.

The mess is finally cleared up and they have just taken the last car away.

It was a real blessing that this didn't happen 5 minutes later or lots of little children could have been involved.

It's cocktail time now, so I'd better sign off and have some liquid refreshment. Have a good week. Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday and I'll be reporting off and on during Lent, so please stay tuned.

XOXO, Pcasso

VALENTINES, FRIENDS AND GUACAMOLE

2009-02-14T15:46:00.017-06:00

Today is Valentine's Day and we have been taking it very easy.

We have several friends who have been wanting me to make my New Mexico style Enchiladas for them, so I decided yesterday that the time had come. These enchiladas are very spicy and you have to have an acquired taste for them as they are really hot. I'd share the recipe with you, but unless you have fresh green Hatch Chiles and red Chile from Chimayo, they won't be any good. Since I use both kinds of chiles, red and green, they are called "Enchiladas Christmas" and they're wonderful.

I set my table yesterday morning and started the beans and my sauces.

I like to keep the table simplistic for this type meal, so I used a small floral arrangement on the table that we could easily visit back and forth during our meal and not have to look around or over the flowers.

Since Frank adores Guacamole, I decided to make that as well to accompany our meal. I don't usually serve a salad since the enchiladas are topped with lettuce and tomatoes, but after all, I could do this little special thing for my Honey as a Valentine extra ;-)

When I was a little girl, I would spend part of my summers in San Antonio with my cousin and his family. His Mother had one child, a son named Lucien Hunter and she loved having a little girl around to share fun girly things with. She taught me how to play Canasta, dance the Rumba and make Guacamole. Back then it was called Avocado Spread and all it had in it was avocados, lemon juice to keep it from turning black, diced onions, Philadelphia Cream Cheese and a little mayonnaise. We ate it on Saltine crackers and I thought it was wonderful. We didn't have anything like that in Fort Worth at the time. This is a photograph of her with my favorite and only cousin. As only children we were pretty spoiled but not nearly as spoiled as as their Wire-haired Terrier named Sir Yippy of York!

Lucien Hunter and I were best friends and even though we he was pretty mean to me some of the time, he was my hero and I adored him. He was 3 years my senior and in my eyes, he could do no wrong. Here we are as children.

Talk about spoiled, he even took dancing lessons from Ginger Rogers! (that was before Fred Astaire came into her life!)

To get back to current times, our guests started arriving at 6:30 with gifts in hand. I didn't expect this but was pleasantly surprised when we received wine and these lovely tulips.

They had no idea how much I love tulips. I've even painted them many times. This is one of my earliest paintings that I did in watercolor.

What a treat the flowers and wine were. I should have dinner parties more often!
Here are several candid shots of the three couples that were here. Frank and I had our photos taken with the 3rd couple so he and I could both be in the photographs. As the photographer, I'm usually not in the picture. As the cook, I'm also usually in the kitchen!

Father Jordan was out of his clerics for the evening and I barely recognized him! We've been friends for about 25 years. We met him when we made our Cursillo.

The dinner seemed to be a big success.

There wasn't a crumb left on any plate, so that's always a compliment to the cook. We finished the meal with Raspberry Sorbet and butter cookies.

After dinner we retired to the den for a nice visit and everyone was on their way home at a little after 10:00.

We were up bright and early this morning sharing Valentine cards and tonight I'll fix us a nice meal and we'll watch Frank's Valentine surprise. I ordered the Silver edition of "As Time Goes By" for him. It's one of his favorite TV shows about an English couple who fell in love during WWII, lost touch with one another and rediscovered their love again later in life. It's delightful and it's on PBS every Sunday night. We never miss it.

I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Happy Valentine's Day and hope that you life will always be filled with the love of friends and family. I've been able to share my life with the man of my dreams and have been truly blessed. He's an angel for putting up with me all these years. It hasn't been easy :-)

With love, XOXOX, Pcasso

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

2009-02-13T14:11:00.006-06:00

This poor little guy just can't seem to hang on long enough to be able to get his fill of bird seed. Watch him do a flip on his second attempt before sliding back down the pole again. It doesn't take a whole lot to keep us old folks amused :-) Enjoy!
XOXO, Pcasso

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS

2009-02-10T17:20:00.006-06:00

I was being a nature person this afternoon. While I was birdwatching, I couldn't resist photographing these little birds. They are new to our yard and I hope I can find them in our bird book. If anyone out there has a clue, please let me know. They are black with a brown head and I am clueless as to their identity.

They arrived "en masse" this afternoon and always came in waves (not unlike "The Wave" at Texas Stadium) They're really fun to watch. I've just learned how to put a video on my blog, so I have another new way to bore you! There's one with our little squirrel in the next clip. Enjoy and be thankful that he's not living in your attic!
XOXO, Pcasso

OUR FURRY LITTLE FRIEND

2009-02-10T16:43:00.008-06:00

This is our resident squirrel. He does anything within his power to try to get to the birdseed as you can see in this little video I took this afternoon!

ICICLES, ILLNESS AND THE FIRST SIGN OF SPRING

2009-02-09T10:27:00.023-06:00

As I reported in my last entry, we were on our way to sunny California. It was to be the perfect time to be there since we had a mini-ice storm and there were icicles everywhere.

Texas weather is so funny ... icicles one day and almost a heat wave the next. We looked out several days after the cold weather left momentarily and we had Robins in the back yard. The poor things think winter's over and it's really only just begun.

My precious husband came down with the flu 5 days before we were to fly out to our sun-filled destination and we regretfully had to cancel at the last minute. This was not a short term illness either as he was sick for over two weeks! Even though we were both very disappointed that we did not make the trip, his health always comes first. I spent nearly 3 weeks in the house preparing meals and my only relief was when I went to the grocery store to replenish the food supply. This was not a fun time, but I did get to watch a lot of wonderful movies. I finally broke down and joined Netflix.

Frank still can't figure out why I joined this since we have AT&T U-verse and access to hundreds of movies a day. There were two significant reasons. #1 - I got 3,000 bonus miles on American (which might get me as far as Texarkana) and #2 is that they have hundreds of Independent films plus all the British series that are shown on PBS available to rent. For only $8.95 a month I can rent as many movies as I want and they pay for all the shipping and handling.

The latest films are as far away as your mailbox and you could feasibly get 10-12 films a month for the one time fee of $8.95! It costs nearly that much for one of us to go to the theater plus you can wear your caftan and eat popcorn while you're being entertained. You can't beat that!!! I highly recommend looking into this if you have a DVD player. It's a great deal, especially if you're a movie buff.
Along with watching movies, I did a little more painting. I really think that I am enjoying painting glass more than anything I've tried in a long time. We always seem to have wine bottles around the house, so I can set up a still life with no problem ;-)
Since I had already painted three bottles with pomegranates that were in my last entry, I decided to paint a Triptych.

I painted the one with the strawberry which is above first and then painted the one with the cherries the complete the "set".

The three can be framed this way or can be used separately. I love the simplicity of these paintings with the clean lines. All I did was reverse the placement of the bottle and glasses in the last two and then added the fruit for a little color.

While we were housebound, we also did a lot of bird watching. There is a great site that I found where I could identify the birds I didn't know. We now have about 9-10 varieties in the back yard at once. Here are a few shots that I took. Some of my favorites are the little Golden and Purple Finches.

My friend and housekeeper, Vera, said that they had finches in their yard, so I bought a feeder and the appeared in 2 days. Guess they can communicate better than I thought they could!
Then there are the Great Tailed Grackles, Cardinals,

Cedar Waxwings

and even a Redheaded Woodpecker showed up.

Thanks to some help from many friends, we finally decided that these little birds were Pine Siskins.

Of course there are the ever present squirrels that we keep trying to encourage to leave the bird seed alone. We wish they would stick to the pecans that fall from our trees!

This one and Frank have an on-going battle and I hate to say it, but I think the squirrel is winning :-( It's wonderful to have these little "pets" in our yard and we enjoy watching them .. especially the birds, so much. I always keep a camera with a telephoto lens in the kitchen so I can keep a close eye on our visitors. We also keep our binoculars handy so we can try to identify the birds. Do you think this is a sign of old age?

Our dear friends from Dallas came to Arlington the end of last week and we went to lunch with them. Papa was feeling better so we really enjoyed our first outing since he got sick. They are the ones who have purchased several of my paintings. The one in this photograph hangs in their bar in Dallas.

We went to one of our favorite places for lunch, Piccolo Mondo and had a delicious meal.

The next day we took our Rector, Father Kresowaty, to lunch. He's such a special person in our lives and we enjoy his company so much.

We have been on the South Beach eating program for over a month and we decided to throw caution to the wind and have a vegetarian pizza. It was WONDERFUL!

Saturday night was the big Gala, "Star Shine", at the Arlington Museum of Art. I donated a black and white photograph that I took in Beijing in the Hutongs when we were in China last year. It was entitled "A Clean Sweep". I usually donate one of my paintings, but decided to do something a little different for a change.

There were 3 tables of us there for the event and we sat with our friends the Ashtons and the Mitchells, along with the Bennetts.

There was a silent auction as well as a live one and Frank spent a lot of time studying the program.

One of the ladies that I used to paint with was one of the volunteers there for the evening and here she is showing a painting that was done by another friend and artist.

It was a good show and a lovely evening and hopefully they made a lot of money for the Museum. It's been difficult for them since we are in a demographic location that makes competing nearly impossible. Both Dallas and Fort Worth have world wide recognized Art Galleries and museums, so our little Museum struggles. I was on their Board and it was like a faith ministry. You have to have faith or it won't prosper. Frank and I volunteered to sample their martinis and wine!

We were in church yesterday morning and then last night we went to another function at the church which was a welcome home for some people who had made their Cursillo this weekend.

Cursillo is a movement of the church. Its purpose is to help those in the church understand their individual callings to be Christian Leaders. The leadership may be exercised in work situations, in the family and social life, in leisure activities, and within the Church environment. Leadership, in Cursillo, does not mean power over others, but influence on others; all of us need to be aware that we can exert a positive influence on those around us.
The goal of Cursillo is the goal of the Church: to bring all to Christ. This is done when informed, trained leaders set out with the support of others having a similar commitment. It helps to renew and deepen Christian commitment. Cursillo is one of many renewal movements. Many people have said Cursillo provides an important learning experience which causes many to feel like newly made Christians with a purpose and with support.
Frank and I have been active in the movement since 1985 and feel that it is very worthwhile.

We don't have any special plans this week but the following weekend we will have a family gathering here and celebrate 3 of our family members' birthdays. I'll write more about this later.

Have a wonderful week, With much love, Pcasso

BACKYARD, BLACKBIRDS, BABIES AND BAPTISMS

2009-01-19T06:08:00.015-06:00

We have had a very fun filled past two weeks. In our "Golden Years", we've taken up bird watching instead of getting a cat ;-)

Our backyard is now like an aviary thanks to Frank's expertise at hanging up and filling bird feeders.

As you can see, we have all sorts of birds and they seem to get along together fairly well. There is a whole flock of dove that visit us daily,

and we have now had a wonderful addition to our flock, the red winged blackbird. They are truly beautiful and there are several that frequent our feeders daily.

Papa even hung a finch feeder and the most beautiful little golden finch comes there several times a day to eat his fill of birdseed.

We also have the unwanted squirrels that love to get on the feeders and eat more than their fair share of the seed ... especially the bits of corn that are there.This is a great past time and our kitchen is condusive to watching all the birds and squirrels since we have all the large windows across the back of the house.

I have finished my study of Islam and I must say that it was very interesting and also very disconcerting. Until we had this study at the book club at church I knew nothing about this religion. I now may know more than I bargained for, but it was a fascinating study.

With the holidays behind us, we are now studying another book by Anne Rice entitled "Christ the Lord, The Road to Cana".

I don't think that I have mentioned that when we were in Israel on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Bishop Kelshaw several years ago, Frank and I renewed our wedding vows in a church in Cana. It was a very special time in our lives and one we'll always remember. Being able to follow in the footsteps of Christ is something that is indescribable and I'm so glad that we did this. Our lives changed drastically as we could see pages out of Holy Scripture unfold before our very eyes. What a blessing!

We have also been attending a lot of parties lately. Our friends, the Minshew's, had a wonderful party to introduce their daughter's fiancee.

The photo above is of them when we were all in Santa Fe together last year. Their daughter is beautiful and will make a lovely bride. Frank was very impressed with her "intended" as he is also an Aggie. He's a handsome young man and we wish them both well when they begin their lives together in the spring.

We also went to a dinner party at our friend Carol's house.

The "gang" was there and after a delicious meal, we played a table top game that was a lot of fun. It's always nice to be surrounded by good friends, good fellowship and good food. Three of my favorite things in life.

The next day we went to an Open House that our Bishop and his wife, Donna, gave .

We have been friends with the Ikers for many years. In fact, we met Bishop Iker and his wife, Donna, about 18 years ago when he was the Rector of a parish in Sarasota, FL and we were traveling with Bishop Michael Marshall as Ministry Consultants for the Anglican Institute which was then based in St. Louis. He was just a baby back then and such a personable young priest.

We had no idea at the time that we would be blessed one day to have him as the Bishop of our Diocese!

We received a New Year's card from my friend, Young Woo, who is also an artist as well as an architect. He always does a painting of one of his grandsons on his card. This year it's Galen who has just turned 14.

Young and I met when we were both on a trip to Egypt and Italy to study photography with Lisl Dennis. That's been nearly 25 years ago now and he, Frank and I keep in close touch. He now has a home in Santa Fe (as well as Beverly Hills and London), so we see him every summer. He's an excellent artist and also a very good "retired" architect. He's in the process of building a home for his son as we speak. Here is a rendering of it.

Last Sunday on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, we had two very special baptisms at our parish. Two of our young priests have new babies and they were each baptised by their fathers on this special day. Here is Father Matkin with his new daughter, Madeline,

and below are the two young families with the newest members of God's family at St. Alban's.

It was a glorious time as baptism's are so special. Each one of us as members of the Parish renew our baptismal vows when we welcome a new member to the fold. Melisa, Father Matkin's wife, made Maddy's Christening dress. She looked like a little doll and the blanket that she is lying on is just like the one that I knitted for Franklin for his Christening 45 years ago. I still have it and each of my grandsons and my granddaughter had it wrapped around them when they went to the church to be baptised. It has become another one of those Salazar traditions. I also have the dress that our eldest son, Jim, was Christened in, and all of the children and grandchildren that followed wore it at their baptism's as well.

We will be leaving for California soon and I'm really excited about this. We will start out in Newport Beach where we will stay in a condo for a few days.

One of the these reasons I'm excited is that we will be seeing old friends that we haven't seen for a long time while we're there. One of our friends lives in Upton, CA, and we hope to be having either lunch or dinner with him and his wife one day while we're there and then we're going to see a long time friend and classmate of mine that we haven't seen in over 20 years. It will truly be a reunion and I'll send a full report when we return.
From there we will be going to LA and will visit with our friends, the Lassleys.

If you remember, we met them when we went to China a year and a half ago and then we all cruised together in Scandinavia. We're really looking forward to our visit.
I have finally been painting again and here is my latest piece. It's a surprise for someone special ... (more details later)

Guess I'd better go and start breakfast for my honey. He has a meeting at the Diocese this morning so I want him to have a hot meal before he leaves. Have a great week.

XOXO, Pcasso

NEW YEARS EVE, PARTIES, REDBIRDS AND EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY!

2009-01-02T16:16:00.017-06:00

I don't know about you, but when a holiday falls in the middle of the week, ever day after that always seems like Sunday to me.

We went over to Franklin and Beth's Christmas day, enjoyed coffee cake and a little visit, and then came home, put on our jammies and watched movies that we received for Christmas. It was nice and quiet at our house, quite a change from excited little boys and their new gifts. It was the perfect way to spend the rest of the day.

The next day was Friday, so we decided to go to a movie. I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan since he ventured into Scientology, but we went to see Valkyrie which is a 2008 historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II, depicting the July 20, 1944 plot of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

If I understand it correctly, this film is based on fact and it is excellent. I'm also not a fan of war films but this one was very intense and extremely well acted with an excellent cast. I highly recommend it.

Sunday was church as usual and we had breakfast with the group afterward. We won't talk about the last Dallas Cowboy game as it was a total disaster. All I can say is that they better do better than that next year since they'll be in our new stadium.

I took it easy the first part of the week, reading a couple of books and enjoying the fireplace and the lights on the Christmas tree. One of the books was entitled "The Middle Place" and it was very good.

The Middle Place is about being a parent and a child at the same time. It is about the special double-vision you get when you are standing with one foot in each place. It is about the family you make and the family you came from and locating, navigating, and finally celebrating the place where they meet.

If you go to this link it's my favorite. Kelly Corrigan The next link has more details but the first one is what got me interested in the book after I had seen the video. http://www.kellycorrigan.com/themiddleplace/videos.php

you can hear her tell about the times and trials she has had. She's an excellent speaker and I highly recommend the book to all mothers and daughters and well as to the men so they can better understand their wives, mothers and daughters.

The other book I read was called The Christmas Sweater and it was given to me by a very dear friend. It's a great read any time but especially around Christmas.

Before I knew it, it was New Year's Eve (after all, we had had 3 Sundays this week ;-)

And speaking of our breakfast group, we started off New Year's Eve with a dinner party at one of the member's house. We have been going to breakfast with them after church for many years and we can all party with the best of them!

The men in this group have what they jokingly call the Friday Prayer Meeting and they go for lunch, fellowship and also a few beers on occasion. It's a great break for them to get away from the girls for a while. When we lived in Raton Frank belonged to to group that was called the "Friday Do Nothing Club" and this is a little more of the same Texas style.

Some of our former Gourmet group met at Pat Rico'ts lovely home for our annual New Year's Eve party.

There we so many people there that it was impossible to take photographs, so we just enjoyed the good friends and fellowship.
It got to be nearly 10:00 p.m. and we had one more stop to make to celebrate the coming of 2009 and the leaving of 2008. These people are also friends from church and Frank and Nasser are fishing buddies as well as friends. He and his wife, Jody, are wonderful hosts and we had a good time at their home as well.

One of the guests had brought a decanter which is called a Peron (not Eva ;-) and everyone tried to drink sparkling grape juice from it without drowning. That was pretty tricky and you could get soaked if you weren't careful, hence the towel!

As you can see, everyone was relaxed and having a great time.

The midnight hour was approaching and so we were all watching the television waiting for the Ball to drop at Times Square.

The men were starting to get tired of waiting, so they decided to pose as a group. Don't they look handsome!

When the midnight hour finally arrived, we drank champagne, ate blackeyed peas for good luck in 2009 ,

and the "boys" put on their coats since it had gotten very cold outside and they shot off fireworks to welcome in the New Year. Frank didn't have a coat and the one they loaned him wasn't quite as good a fit as his would have been!

We were home by 12:30 and were exhausted since we had started "partying" at 6:00 p.m. We had had a lovely time everywhere we went and were looking forward to a nice quite day on New Year's when we could sleep late and just be couch potatoes. WRONG!!
At 5:03 a.m. the alarm went off. We were dead to the world and didn't know if we were being robbed or what. It's very frightening, especially when you are asleep, to hear that alarm go off! The alarm company called us and said that the alarm indicated that there was a fire. Until they called, I told Frank NOT to go in the front part of the house without a gun in case someone was there. After they called we started looking for smoke and thought we smelled something burning. It's amazing how rampant your imagination can run when the suggestion has been placed there! To make a long story short, we got the alarm turned off, checked everything in as well as out, and there was no fire and no intruder. Needless to say, it was now not easy to go back to sleep! I finally did, but poor Papa stayed up.
There is a plus side to the New Years Day story. When we finally got up, we went into the kitchen for breakfast and were greeted by all kinds of birds on our yard.

As we looked more closely, we saw this beautiful red bird who was saying good morning to us on the first day of the new year.

There seems to be a whole family of Cardinals as well as Blue jays, Sparrows and even Finches.

They were all eating so fast and furiously that Papa had to put up more feeders and he has refilled them several times.

We even have dove along with squirrels that keep us entertained.

Our backyard is like an outdoor aviary. We love it!

Well, it's nearly Happy Hour, so I'll say goodbye for now. I hope that your new year will be filled with fun, friends and surprises.

With love until then ...Pcasso

OUR CHRISTMAS EVE GATHERING

2008-12-25T18:36:00.005-06:00

Merry Christmas one and all!

In the post below you will find a slide show presentation of our family gathering last night. We met here at the house and went to the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Alban's on Davis Drive.

It was a beautiful service and the church was packed. This was the first of three services we had there yesterday and the was also one this morning. Father Duncan gathered all the children around him as he preached a homily for the children. It was wonderful to see all of them in their Christmas best listening to him explain the light of Christ coming into the world. They had only the candles glowing in the church as he told them the story of Jesus' birth. It was spectacular and it was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. The church was decorated with hundreds of Poinsettias and greenery.

When the service was over we came home for a celebration of our own as you will see in the slide show.

My wish for each of you is that you have a Happy and Healthy New Year. May God bless each of you as I am blessed by your friendship.

XOXO, Pcasso

Christmas Eve 2008

2008-12-25T18:27:00.000-06:00

TABLES ARE READY, WE'RE RARING TO GO, WAITING ON SANTA ... HO, HO, HO!!!

2008-12-24T14:51:00.002-06:00

We have nearly completed this blessed season of Advent. The waiting is almost over and the birth of Our Lord is just around the corner. The third week in Advent is called Rose Sunday and we celebrated the Eucharist on the special occasion where Father Matkin was our Celebrant at St. Alban's.

It's now time to get busy with the gift buying. Holiday shopping can be such a chore, so I have made this my motto for the holidays.

To start the week off, I met with three fellow artists and we celebrated both a birthday and Christmas with a great lunch at Piranha which is a great place for tempura. It's always a special time when you are with friends.

Frank attended a party at the hospital last week for the volunteers and they gave him this wonderful gift that will become part of our Christmas tradition. It's a gift that will last forever and you don't even have to open it! It's made from glass tiles with Christmas lights inside. I think it's so clever and we will use it over and over again.

This past Saturday night the Cowboys played their last game in Texas Stadium. Matt, our grandson-in-law, went to the game with Frank. That was a very bittersweet time but they had a great time and the post game celebration was a great tribute to the team and all the past team members that had played in that stadium. We have had season tickets there since the day it opened and will have tickets at the new stadium as well. We can almost see the new stadium from our house.

The next day, last Sunday, was a celebration of Father Kresowaty's 25th Anniversary since his being ordained to the priesthood.

My photograph of him is a little grainy and I apologize but I was pretty far away from him, so I couldn't get the detail that I wanted.
The ladies at the church did a wonderful job on the food and flowers and a good time was had by all.

When we left a meeting at the church one night last week we noticed that one of our neighbors had gone all out with their Christmas decorations. It's a little over the top but great fun to see at this special time of year.

As I was going through some boxes looking for a special photograph, I ran across these old photographs of the boys with Santa that were taken a long time ago. It's hard to realize that they have changed so much over the years. It's fun to look back at old times. They were so little and cute and now they're so grown up. I miss the younger years but there are so many things that we can do together now, that each year of our journey together is special.

Ethan will be 14 on his next birthday

and Ian and Connor are 9 and 11 now. Time flies!

Speaking of the boys, Connor and Ian were supposed to come to the house to make candy on Monday. Ian had spent the weekend with his friend, Billy, so he didn't get here until later in the afternoon. They had been deer hunting and after all, first things first, especially when you can spend quality time with your best friend on a ranch!

Connor and Beth came over that morning and we made Bourbon Balls together. It was fun and messy as well.

You have to roll the chilled filling on your hands to form a ball, and then you wait for GrandmaMama to bring over the melted chocolate

and the dip the powdered sugar, nut and bourbon balls in the chocolate until each one is completely coated. It's a fun process an anyone can do it.

Ian didn't get here in time to help, but judging from the look on his face, I think he may have eaten one Bourbon Ball too many!

Our good friends, the Mitchell's, always bring us a homemade delicacy to share on Christmas morning. It's become a tradition to go over to Franklin and Beth's and have coffee and this wonderful baked treat while the boys open their presents. They came by yesterday and brought ours as it had just come out of the oven. Can't wait until tomorrow morning to taste it!

I got up early and set the tables before we went to exercise. They look pretty festive if I do say so myself! Each of the girls will wear a crown of stars and the boys will have Santa hats. Connor gets to be Santa this year so he's excited about that.

The boys will have their Christmas Eve dinner in the kitchen and we will sit at the "big table". Snoopy Claus has been in the family for years and will be at the table with them this year.

We will go to the early service tonight and then come home, open our gifts and have our traditional Green Chili Enchilada, Posole, beans and tortilla dinner. The tree is laden with gifts that are just waiting to be opened.

We will finish our meal with this delectible rum cake and then everyone will retire and wait for Santa to come in the morning.

Have a wonderful day tomorrow Merry Christmas to all ... and to all a Good Night!

XOXO, Pcasso

WAITING FOR SANTA

2008-12-15T06:47:00.000-06:00

These are three of the trees that we have put up for the season. Be sure to remember to scroll down to the next entry as it is the story about getting ready for Santa! Have a blessed Advent Season.

Pcasso

ADVENT, LESSONS AND CAROLS AND PARTY TIME

2008-12-13T14:38:00.000-06:00

It seems like it's been forever since I have written in this blog. Things have been happening so quickly lately that I tend to get confused about time. I did notice that it's only been a couple of weeks since I last made an entry. Time flies when you are staying busy and having fun!

I've painted a little recently. Here are some of my latest in this panel of Creme Bruelee, which is one of my favorite desserts.

The day after Thanksgiving my darling family came over and decorated our home for Christmas. What usually takes me a couple of days, they were able to accomplish in 3 and a half hours.

I couldn't believe it! While we were inside decorating, the boys and Harry were busy in the Jacuzzi watching the leaves fall and staying out of the way.

We all had a little champagne while they decorated which is a tradition in the Salazar household.

Frank was attending high school playoff games, so he got out of any work. Ian said, "Just like our Boompa .... hiding out when there's work to be done" ;-)

So many of my decorations are long time treasures and I have a story about each of them.

I did all the needlework on the wreath above and I also stitched this free-standing piece which is in the guest bathroom. I used to stitch all the time but it's been a while now. Maybe that will be my next project.

I couldn't believe how easily Beth could hop up on the counters to hang the garlands and Nicholas is tall enough that we never even had to get a ladder out!

At 6'8 he can reach everything except the highest peak in the kitchen.

The boys have always loved this little treasure. The heat from the candles makes it turn and it's great fun to watch.

Of course we always decorate the bar to the 9's since it's a favorite gathering place for fun, games and cheers to all. An added plus is that we're open 24/7, so be sure and drop by !

I'll set the table for our Christmas Eve feast the day before but for now, I have wonderful little elves sitting there just waiting for their Green Chile Enchiladas and Posole.

An Email friend of mine who lives in Las Vegas was in town visiting her sister, so I finally got to meet her. She is now the proud grandmother of triplets. Here is the happy family. There are 2 boys and a little girl and they have an older brother. They certainly have their hands full with these precious babies! We have triplets in Frank's family and I remember how busy everyone was. They're lucky to have Grandmama Carol there to help!

And speaking of babies, here's the newest member of our Parish. Her name is Madeline Grace and she belongs to Father Timothy Matkin and his lovely wife, Melisa. She was just one month old the day that this photograph was taken. St. Alban's is very fortunate to have all of them as part of our church family.

On the 4th of December we had the pleasure of attending a performance of the Vocal Majority in Dallas. Our good friends, the Waldies, had 2 extra tickets, so they asked us to join them.

We had dinner at their lovely home before the performance. If you look closely, you will see Miss Lucy, their precious little Japanese Chin. I'm not a big fan of small dogs, but this one is the sweetest one you'll ever meet. I told them if she ever turns up missing, they know where to look for her!

We then headed to the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson, TX.

The Vocal Majority is a Dallas based men's chorus of over 150 singers, billed as "America's Premier Pops Chorus."

It is part of the Dallas Metro chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Under the direction of Jim Clancy, they have won a record eleven International Chorus Championships

This was their Christmas show and it was both a lovely evening and a perfect way to start the holiday season.
December 7th was the first Sunday in Advent. Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve. If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.
The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent,

and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God.

We have gotten out our Advent wreath and we light it at mealtime and begin each meal with special Advent prayers.

You light a purple candle the first week, then the 2nd week you light that one plus another. The 3rd week is Rose Sunday, so you light the pink one along with the two purple and the final week all 4 are lit. It's a beautiful tradition and also a reminder of the coming of Christ and Christmas.
The following Sunday we celebrated the service of Lessons and Carols at St. Alban's followed by a dinner in the Parish Hall at church.

I thought about each of you all through the service and knew that you would have really enjoyed it. The service was very reverent and the music was outstanding. We had our Chamber choir, the youth choir and the hand bell choir singing and playing glorious hymns. It was a perfect way to celebrate the coming of our most precious Lord.
Lessons and Carols is a uniquely Anglican service. It dates to the 15th and 16th centuries in the Church of England. This beautiful service includes readings from Holy Scripture, prayers, and wonderful music and hymns of the Advent season. The church's altar and pulpit were adorned in beautiful Advent Purple. Candlelight from the Advent Wreath and candles throughout the nave delivered light to the winter darkness as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus as the Light of the World. The Lessons from Holy Scripture recount for us God's work through the prophets in preparing us for the coming of the Messiah and they conclude with the moving account from the Gospel According to Luke of the Annunciation to Mary of Jesus' birth. Between the lessons we enjoyed the beautiful music and hymns of the Advent season.
After the service we had a delicious meal of pork tenderloin which the church furnished and the side dishes and desserts were pot luck. Someone brought a dessert called Chocolate Cobbler that was to die for!

Since I guess I'll always be a big fan of desserts, I decided to paint these little ones. This way I can enjoy them and don't have to account for their calories :-)

Saint Nicholas even visited during dinner and passed out gold covered chocolate coins to all of the children. It was a great evening.

There are a group of us who were in Gourmet Supper Club together for years and have also been long time friends. Some of us were going out for dinner last night, so we decided to have everyone over for drinks before dinner. We rarely cook for the group any more. Time has taken it's toll and it's hard to spend hours in the kitchen now. The bar was ready to go at 6:30 and our guests started arrive on time.

Mojito's seemed to be the favorite drink of the evening, so we let everyone make their own.

The house was decorated for the occasion and looks very festive, so what better time to entertain! One of our guests does this silly thing called the alligator. He can drop down on the floor at a moments notice and wiggle around like an alligator.

I was really impressed ... not so much that he can get down on the floor that easily, but that he can get back up without help. I certainly couldn't do that!

I think we all still look pretty good for a group of Senior Citizens. Time has been kind to us.

Frank said that he couldn't resist taking this shot of all the gals at the bar. He said that it was a sight that he wasn't used to, so he had to have a keepsake of this momentus occasion.

We ate dinner at a little hole in the wall here in town called Italy II.

The food is delicious and we all had a great time. We were very noisy after a long cocktail hour at our place, but no one seemed to mind as everyone is starting to get into the Christmas Spirit.

Frank and I shared a pizza and it was delicious.

It's a fun, casual place and the owners are so friendly and accommodating that you can't help but have a good time.
Frank is at the playoff games again (he just loves high school football). I suppose it's because he played football when he was in high school. He also played in the band, so he said that he had to march with the band at half time in his football uniform since there was no time to change. Ah, the mysteries of small town living!
The Cowboys will be playing here tomorrow and our friend from College Station will be back in town to stay with us and go to the game with Frank. I might try to paint some since I haven't picked up a brush in several days.
Have a good week, a most blessed holiday season and I'll write again after Christmas to give a Santa report.

XOXO, Pcasso

TODAY WE GIVE THANKS.

2008-11-27T15:46:00.001-06:00

What a day this has been, What a rare mood I'm in,

I could swear..It must be....Turkey love!

My daughter in law, Beth, came over yesterday and helped me set the table for the big day. At this stage of my life, I have a very difficult time getting things out that are in the lower cabinets ... that is where I keep the fancy stuff, and she's both petite and young (of which I am neither), so she was gracious enough to lend me a hand.

Once the tables were set, it was time for Boompa and me to go to work. I decided that it was time for him to learn to make dressing, so we accomplished this annual chore together last night for the first time in 50 years. Together we chopped, stirred and stuffed last night and here is the final result in the early stage sans Tom the Turkey.

We have discovered that the best way for the two of us to accomplish anything with great success in the kitchen when we're working together is to have a little help from our friend "Two Buck Chuck". For those of you who are familiar with Trader Joe's, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about ;-)

I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. this morning and woke up before it actually buzzed (that afforded Papa more sleep and that's always good for him). I also started the gravy by cooking the giblets and getting things ready for the final product.

Another somewhat strange tradition we have here at the Salazar household (and we have lots of those) is deviled eggs as an appetizer. The whole family loves them, so I was up early in order to hard boil 2 dozen eggs, and get them ready to be deviled so they would be ready when the family arrives.

Everyone arrived on time ( they always seem to when there is food involved) and immediately hit the appetizer table which had the deviled eggs, cream cheese with chipotle-chile-raspberry sauce on it, black olives and corn relish with jalapenos which Nicholas and Dayna always bring. Everything was delicious!

As soon as the snacking began, it was time for a little libation. We all gathered in the bar and discussed Thanksgivings past, drew names for Christmas gift exchange next month and had a Bloody Mary or two.

In case you didn't notice by the clothing, the majority of our family members are big time Cowboy Fans. Matt, Rachel's husband, is almost as big a fan as Boomps (he would be bigger if he had lived that long ;-) He and his Dad were friends of Tom Landry, so he has a very personal interest in "da Boys".

Of course there's always one in every crowd and today was Franklin's turn. He had to do his Chinese routine when he saw the lid to the ice bucket. Silly boy!

Boompa had a quiz for the little boys and when the "contest" was over, each one of them was given a monetary reward for right answers. He's such a good Boompa ... always has something special planned for the boys.

If there is one thing Frank loves, it's coats! Every time he goes to a department store, he comes home with another coat or jacket. We decided that we would have a shopping day at the "Salazar House of Coats", so the guys took their pick of 38 new or near new pieces of clothing for their added attraction and the price was right ... $00.00!

We will give the rest to a charitable institution and hopefully they will keep someone warm who is less fortunate that we are.

My only concern was how the younger ones might have felt since nothing would fit them. Ian decided that he could take several and grow into them but we discouraged it since he had about sixteen zillion sizes to go!
Once the "sale" was over, we headed for the kitchen and Papa and Nicholas went to work on the turkey bird. Nicky got the stuffing out of him, and then Boomps started to carve as Connor watched.

Even though I tend to set a very formal table, since we don't have someone to serve us, we gather in a circle, thank the Lord for our many blessings, and then serve ourselves from a buffet type situation. It seems to work better this way.

The young men still eat in the kitchen (that way they can misbehave and not be under our constant scrutiny) and we eat in the dining room. As they get older, they will "graduate" to the big table!

Those of us who are more mature (does that include Franklin and his Chinese hat???) sit at the dining room table with the crystal, china and candles, even though it's the wrong time of day to have lighted candles on the table according to Emily Post. I know that ... but I just love candlelight, even at noon ... so who really cares if I'm politically and socially incorrect on thanksgiving! It looks pretty!!!

I managed to max my plate out and everything was absolutely delicious!

It made me very very happy :-)

Beth made Potato Rolls, pumpkin bread and these absolutely adorable sugar cookies for the boys since pumpkin pie isn't their favorite (they don't know what they missed ... BUT ... that left more for us!!!)

Rachel made some of the most delicious pumpkin pies I've ever tasted (Boomps wanted the whole thing but I waited for the whipped cream!)

Nicholas and Dayna brought their wonderful corn relish with cream cheese and jalapeno peppers along with a green bean casserole. What more could one ask for!

We decided (or at least I did) that I would provide the turkey, dressing and gravy and the rest of the family could bring the rest. One of these days it will be their turn to do the whole meal, so they need to learn the ropes, so to speak. We won't be around as long as they will!

We polished off most of the turkey

and ate all of the rest of the food, so once we finished the meal, we decided that we needed a little fresh air and went outside.

I've always thought that Ian was a little monkey and he proved me right today!

Papa and Paco left for the football game and the rest of the family helped with the clean up. I'm so blessed. My back problems won't allow me to stand for any length of time, so my wonderful family always pitches in and puts leftovers in the frig, they do the dishes and leave my home like nothing ever happened today.

That's why I'm so grateful for digital images so I can remember and share with you this very special time.

Now that the "party's over", Harry, our youngest and smallest family member says, "Let's get the heck out of Dodge". He's tired of being an onlooker.

I'll leave you on a more serious note. I thank God daily for each and every one of you. I cannot tell you how much your friendships mean to me and to Frank. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and for all of you, we give thanks!

With love, Pcasso

BROKEN BOW, BIRTHDAYS, BON-BONS AND BABIES

2008-11-23T16:50:00.000-06:00

The past few days have been busy ones for both me and Papa. If you remember from my last post, Frank went fly fishing in Oklahoma with his friend from church and they had a great time.

I assume that's where they went. At least they have the photographs to prove that they caught some fish. Oops .. what if they used someone else's fish and posed with them for this Kodak moment??? ;-)

Since the place they fished in Broken Bow was catch and release, he didn't bring any fish home but that's par for the course. All the places where he fishes in New Mexico have the same policy, so the joke around our house is, "Honey, I'm going fishing again and I think I'll take my pole this time" ;-)
If the fishing wasn't as good as they had hoped for, they certainly enjoyed themselves, just visiting and sitting in the jacuzzi. Nasser enjoyed a good cigar after a hard day on the stream while taking advantage the semi-mountain fresh air in the great outdoors in the foothills of the Ozarks.

They reminded me a little of the attorneys on "Boston Legal" at the end of a long day's work ... enjoying a scotch and a cigar and ... in fact, they even had a sleep-over!
While they were gone I painted my little fingers off. The first thing I painted was a calorie free treat .. a chocolate Bon-Bon. It makes me hungry just to look at it.

The next day I decided to add to my collection of bird paintings and painted "My Little Chickadee". I guess I should nickname him W.C. in honor of the infamous Mr. Fields.

Some of my daughter in law's friends (or as my friend Madge calls her, my DIL) took Beth to lunch at a sushi place called Pirhana Killer Sushi in the Highlands, which is a wonderful new shopping mall in Arlington, to celebrate her birthday on the actual day.

I think it's so great when young people get together and enjoy themselves. If memory serves me right, I did a lot of that in my younger days and it was great fun.

This little goodie is called Marry Me Roll and it looks delicious!

For those who are not 100% sure, there's always help with chopsticks when you need a friend. And then there are those who know exactly what to do :-)

Father Matkin, our Assistant Rector at St. Alban's, and his wife, Melisa, have just had their first child. She is a beautiful little girl named Madeline Grace. They are such proud parents and little Maddy is very blessed to have such loving parents.

We have another young priest who has joined our staff and he and his wife had their first child a little over a month prior to the birth of Maddy. What a blessing it is for us as a parish to have this new life as new members of our church family.
The day after Frank returned from his fishing expedition ;-) we had a friend come to stay with us. He lives in College Station and he and Frank have been football game buddies for many years (he's the one that Frank goes to the A&M games with).

This weekend was the beginning of the high school football game playoffs, so Robert arrived yesterday morning and they left for Texas Stadium at 10:00 a.m. and didn't return until 10:00 p.m. I painted the chickadee while they were gone, made Green Chile Stew and cornbread for them for dinner when the FINALLY arrived home and I was in bed by 9:30.
I have painted several things for Franklin and Beth's home, so she has sent me photographs of them hanging. It always makes me feel good to know that they like my work enough to want to hang it in their home.

This morning we went to church and they headed for Texas Stadium once again (last night I suggested that they take a bedroll with them and just sleep there!) The Cowboys played at noon today and they won ..YEAH! While they were gone, I painted this last painting of the last few days of my "paint-a-thon". It's a partially eaten Creme Brulee, one of my very favorite desserts.

I have to admit that it was a real challenge to paint. I thought it would be a piece of cake, but then, it was Creme Brulee, so what could I have expected!
I hope you have a wonderful week. I'll be having lunch with someone that I have never met before this week for lunch. She lives in Las Vegas and has purchased several of my paintings. Since she will be coming to our area for the holiday, I'm meeting her for lunch and I am really looking forward to finally seeing her face to face. we've been Email friends for several years and I can't wait to meet her.
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving. I'll report on our family when the holiday is over.
In the meantime, may God bless you and yours. We all have so much to be thankful for and the thing that I am most thankful for is good friends like you.
XOXO, Pcasso

PIETY, PEARS, PASTA FRIGOLE AND PROFITEROLES

2008-11-19T18:38:00.001-06:00

This has been a very busy time in our household. We have just finished the 26th Annual Convention in the Diocese of Fort Worth. The children in the Diocese made this banner for the Convention. I think it's wonderful.

We, as Orthodox Episcopalians, have taken a major step at this time toward trying to reach a point where there will be a healing in our beloved church. I'm sure that many of you have read about the controversy or have seen something on the news on TV about it. The past year has been a very stressful time for all of us.

This is what our Bishop, the Rt. Rev'd Jack Iker, presented to the convention. By voting to change our diocesan Constitution and Canons, we have withdrawn from the General Convention, dissociating ourselves from the moral, theological, and disciplinary innovations of The Episcopal Church. We have realigned with another Province of the Anglican Communion. This is a change in affiliation, not a change in worship or doctrine.Our Bishop, clergy, and congregations have been received into the fellowship of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. We are deeply grateful to Archbishop Gregory Venables for this provision, which he has made on a temporary and emergency basis, in response to the crisis in The Episcopal Church. We now look forward to the formation of an Anglican Province in North America.On the first night of convention there was a glorious celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the guest preacher was The Rt. Rev. William Godfrey, Bishop of Peru.

It's always a real blessing for me to see all the clergy from our Diocese gathered together in all their Liturgical "finery" as they process down the aisle with incense and a full choir is singing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." It's like a little foretaste of what I think heaven might be like. I love all the pomp and circumstance that accompanies the liturgy in the Episcopal church and always wish that everyone I know could be there and experience these special times of worship with us. The service was held in our Cathedral, St. Vincent's, which is in Bedford, Texas.

Our Diocese covers a lot of territory and Bedford is centrally located in the Metroplex.The Convention started on Friday and was held in the school's gymnasium.

We were there from 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday until about 9:00 p.m., and then we reconvened Saturday morning at 7:30 and didn't finish until around 3:00 that afternoon. This is a photograph of Bishop Iker's wife (on the right) with the Bishop of Peru's wife. They are both beautiful women.

Before I became so involved in the Convention, I found a little spare time to paint. My daughter in law, Beth, is having a birthday this month, so I wanted to paint something to surprise her. I had several free days, so I went out to my studio and started to paint. I had told her that I was going to paint some lemons for her kitchen, but since I know so much she loves pears, I decided that would be my subject. My grandson, Nicholas, is so talented, and once the paintings were complete, (there are 5 of them) He made a frame for them. He also made all the frames for the ones I painted for him and for his sister, Rachel. Here they are unframed, along with a couple of close-ups.

He was unable to frame them right after I had painted them as both he and I were very busy and he lives in Dallas now. Consequently, it's not quite as easy for us to get together as often as we used to. I really miss having him "next door". If you remember, I painted these three gumball machines several weeks after I painted Beth's present.

Once I was through painting these little gems, I still was on a roll (or in the zone as I sometimes refer to it), so I wanted to paint some more. This painting is entitled, "Espresso Break with Prayer Book and Pear".

Once that was finished, I decided to attempt painting glass. This was a real challenge, but after several not so successful attempts, this is the end result. I like it! I call it, "Fruit of the Vino" ;-)

In my spare time (is that an Oxymoron or am I just a moron???) I have been doing a lot of studying and reading. I just finished a delightful book entitled "Same Kind of Different Like Me".

It is a book that is factual but could just as easily be fiction, tells the unlikely story of the unlikeliest of friends—Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Told in two voices, the book alternates between telling the story from the perspective of Ron and Denver.Ron Hall is a wealthy international art dealer who travels the world buying and selling rare and expensive works of art. He has grown rich but has also grown selfish and has grown away from his family. When Ron Hall reluctantly volunteers at a homeless shelter (at the insistence of his wife) he soon comes into contact with Denver, a man his wife is convinced is going to change the city. Denver grew up as a sharecropper in Louisiana, living a life that seemed little different from the life of his ancestors one hundreds years before. He eventually walked away from the cotton fields and found that, while life on the streets of Fort Worth was difficult, it was easier than being a sharecropper. It was here, in a homeless shelter, that the two men met, one serving food and the other being a reluctant recipient of this charity.It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to everyone. It will truly touch your heart.

And now on the other side of the coin, I have been studying a book in out church book club on Islam.

One of our Priests at St. Alban's, Father Matkin, selected this book and even though I am not enjoying the read (it's a very disturbing subject), at least I'm educating myself about the Islamic beliefs and Muslims. This book is more than a Christian description of Islam. It is also something of a story. Unveiling Islam includes an incredible, captivating, bittersweet story about two devout Muslim brothers who made Jesus Christ their Lord. A relationship with Christ cost them a relationship with their Muslim father. Acar Mehmet Caner reluctantly disowned his sons as an act of submission to Islam's Allah. Ergun and Emir Caner not only became Christians, they became Christian pastors and Christian academics that equipped themselves to help others do what they were not able to do for their hero and father.

I have become so fascinated with the study, even though it disturbs me, I ordered the History Channel's documentary on the subject. I feel as though in today's society we should all be informed as much as possible.

I'm a very visual person, so if I can see it, I can comprehend it better (I always detested math in school when we had stated problems .... give me the numbers and I'm fine, but I don't care how many miles Johnny rode on the bus in how many minutes it took to get a dozen bananas to an undetermined number of people before they spoiled! :-)

Today is the day that I've been waiting for. Frank left this morning to go fly fishing with a friend from the church in Oklahoma, so since tomorrow is Beth's birthday, we decided to have lunch together. Don't feel too sorry for Frank as the cabin he's staying in has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a jacuzzi. I think fishing just might be a sideline! He certainly isn't roughing it!!

The reason that this day is so special is because I can finally give Beth her painting. I am not excited because Frank is gone!
I haven't been writing much because I was waiting until I could include these photographs. She came over around noon and first of all ... she surprised me with a new haircut. Even though she has always looked great, now she looks absolutely ADORABLE!!

You girls can understand how a new look can make you feel 100%. After she read her card, I took her into the den, made her close her eyes, and then I surprised her with this painting. It was great!

We then went to Piccolo Mondo for lunch

where we enjoyed Pasta Frigole as a starter

followed by Spinach Ravioli with tomato sauce and basil.

When we had finished our meal, Antonio, the owner, surprised us both with complimentary Profiteroles to celebrate Beth's birthday. As you can see, it was a pleasant surprise indeed!

It was a perfect time. I was just sorry that Frank and Franklin couldn't be with us.
I want to close this entry on a serious note. This past weekend has been one of mixed emotions for me and Frank where our church is concerned. It is with great sadness that we watched as some of our church family have decided to take a different path from those of us here at St. Alban's. It is also with great joy that we have stood up for what we believe and can now move forward to serve the Lord.
The following is something that I saw in an Episcopal Church in Texarkana, Texas many years ago. I copied it off of a placard on the wall and the words may not be an exact quote, but they express my feelings more than I could ever express them myself.

A LOVE SONG TO MY CHURCH

I know the dangers of "denominational pride". But it happens that I love the Episcopal Church, and despite of the desirability of the onrushing ecumenism, perhaps I secretly love her, not conditionally or with calculation, not with careful reservations, but freely, joyfully, whole-heartily.

I love the stone and brick Victorian stateliness of her old city parishes, even when they get down at the heels because "the neighborhood has changed". And her little small town churches, smelling faintly of mice and damp, kept going somehow in the face of great difficulty by devoted, self-giving souls. And her gleaming, spanking fresh suburban churches, too, whose self-conscious cautious modern architecture speaks of tearful compromise.

I love her high - church places with their clouds of smoke from the incense pot and their ranks of statues. And no less do I love her low - church parishes, all furniture polish and the restrained but curiously exuberant dignity of choral Morning Prayer.

I love her doctrine, her emphasis on sound learning, her devotion to scripture and tradition, and the glorious Elizabethan periods of her language. But I love her freedom which she grants her children, her openness to the new, her breath of humanity.

I love the bright young families proudly arranged in the pews on Sunday morning, and the sparse little congregation on weekdays whose hushed devotion to the Lord is an almost palpable radiance. And her old priests whose eyes show the compassion taught them in a lifetime; and her young priests who are so sure that the world can be won in five years at the outside.

I love the names of her heroes - Laud, Hooker, Pusey, King, Gore, Weston, Seabury, Brooks, DeKoven, Kemper, Rowe, and a hundred others including some private ones of my own.

I love letters to the 'Living Church' which begin "Dear Sir: It is high time..." and the solemn nonsense with which the Executive Council launches a new project; the billowing sleeves of the bishops' rochets and the whole mad range of possible head-gear that clerics can wear. I even love the battered Prayer Books in the pew racks that so often turn out to be Hymnals.

I love the eccentric old ladies in the city parishes who dress in liturgical colors. And the uproarious stories about departed dignitaries that are told whenever priests are gathered and have time for small talk.

I love the hands of young and old reverently raised to receive the Sacrament. And the dusty dry tracts in the church vestibules offering earnest advice that nobody wants. All the portraits of bearded ecclesiastics, long dead, on sacristy walls.

I really can't help it. I don't know if everybody ought to be an Episcopalian; it may be that other people feel as strongly about their church as I do about mine. I do know that I love the Episcopal Church, that I am sworn to her, forsaking all others. I'm glad of it. And it isn't denominational loyalty or sectarian or party fervor. It's love.

James H.P. Pearson

The church that I have loved and worshiped in for the past 72 years has changed, but my love for the Lord has not, and this wonderful tribute will always bring tears to my eyes and will tug on my heartstrings. My God bless each of you.
Pcasso

DOCTORS, THE DIOCESE, SPORTS AND ALL THAT JAZZ!

2008-11-06T16:29:00.000-06:00

The past few weeks have been busy, busy ... BUSY. We didn't have many "spooks"at our door, so we had to be content just sitting in the Pumpkin Patch.

I've gone to every doctor known to man the past week (that's what happens when you're in your Golden Years). I've seen my Internist, Dentist, Gynecologist, Cardiologist, Dermatologist as well as having my annual Mammogram. The good news is that I got a good report from all the above, so I'm good to go for another year ... Praise God!
There were also a couple of firsts for our family. Our great-grandson, Ethan went to the Cowboy game with his Grandpa for the first time

and I went with Frank to my first hockey game to watch the Dallas Stars play. It was the first time I had been to the American Airlines Center and the place is wonderful.

You really have to bundle up at a hockey game as it is very cold in there! I had no idea it would be that cold as we were in the upper deck, but it was!

The American Airlines Center is an arena located in the Victory Park neighborhood near downtown Dallas, Texas that is used for hockey games, basketball games, football games, concerts and various other events.
The Dallas Stars are a National Hockey League team based in Dallas. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their home games at the American Airlines Center.
Our whole family is very sports oriented (with the exception of me), and they all have their "uniforms" that they wear when their team is playing.

Our eldest grandson, Nicholas, even made this T-shirt when we were playing Washington. They're all ardent fans.

Ian could name all the players on the Stars team along with their positions when they won the Stanley Cup. He was not quite 3 years old at the time, and the Security person was so impressed with him that he let him have his photograph taken with the trophy and he also let him touch the Cup without wearing gloves which was a big time no-no!

Since both Franklin and Ian are musicians, I decided to paint these guitars for them. Like I said, I've been in a painting mood the past few weeks.

If you compare Ian in the following photograph with the one with him and the Stanley Cup, you'll see how much he has changed. Time really flies when you're having fun. Where have the years gone???

Two weeks ago the boy's school celebrated Grandparent's Day, so we took their lunch to them and visited with them while they ate. It was a beautiful day, so we were able to sit outside for their lunch.

We opted to go to a restaurant after the lunch period was over as we've never been much for school cafeteria food.

Several weeks ago I received a letter from a gentleman in Florence, Italy, who had read my blog. He is a fellow artist and was interested in the time that I had studied with Charles Reid. We have started a continuing correspondence and he sent me some photographs that he had taken when he studied with Mel Stabin in Italy. I decided to drag out my watercolors again and this is that I came up with after having been inspired by the photographs he sent me. I haven't painted in this medium in a long time but I think I still have fairly a decent handle on it!

I have spent the past few days painting gumball machines. I subscribe to a painters web site, and when I saw a gumball machine on there a long time ago, I got the idea to try to paint some myself.

I started with one, but as time went by, I was so carried away and it was so much fun that I ended up painting 3. I hope that you like them.
Frank will be going to College Station this weekend to see the A&M game. He will be staying with a young friend of his, Robert Davis. He's such a big Aggie fan that he bleeds maroon if he cuts himself! I'll stay home and might even paint some more. I've really been in the mood lately and this will be a good time to do it.

Our Diocesan Convention will be the following weekend, so please keep us and the Church in your prayers. I have been keeping a 11 day Novena for the Church with prayers for spiritual discernment. This is going to be a historical meeting and we need all the Divine guidance that we can get.

I hope that all of you had a happy Halloween and will have a good few weeks now that we are back on Daylight Savings Time and have more hours to play :-)
I look forward to hearing from each of you soon. Email is a wonderful way to keep in touch. You are always in my heart if not in my sight,
XOXO, Pcasso